News

Posted: August 26, 2016

The GB Rowing Team won a first-ever men’s quadruple scull gold medal at U23 level as the lightweights stormed to a historic victory at the 2016 World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Hugo Coussens, Oliver Varley, Matthew Curtis and Lochwinnoch’s Gavin Horsburgh produced a performance of great maturity as they overcame a concerted challenge from Germany before pushing through to take the lightweight men's quad title.

Coussens, Varley and University of Edinburgh student Curtis were all making their debuts at World Championships level, while Horsburgh was stepping up to the U23 ranks after being part of the quad that won a first-ever gold for GB at last year’s World Junior Championships in Rio.

“To be part of another GB crew to make history is just amazing,” said Horsburgh, who celebrates his 19th birthday on Friday. “Tunnel vision – that’s what we’ve been saying all week, focus on our own race, and thanks to the powerhouses in our boat we were able to push through.”

The men’s four of James Johnston, Tom George, James Rudkin and Aberdeen’s Lewis McCue went within four-tenths of a second of winning another gold moments later but had to settle for silver.

Hot sunshine and a gentle breeze made for perfect conditions on the Willem-Alexander Baan course and it was a blistering race, with both Austria – who took gold – and GB going within two seconds of a championships-best time.

It was a second successive silver in the four for Johnston and McCue, who said: “It was a great race and we put everything out there, it just wasn’t quite enough. Austria were the better crew on the day, well done to them”

The women’s four narrowly missed out on a podium place, while both the men’s coxed four and lightweight women’s quad slipped out of medal contention in the latter stages of their finals.

Racing in the first A final of the U23 Championships were the GB women’s four of Lauren Kedar, Saskia Budgett, Harriet Taylor and Glasgow’s Rowan McKellar.

They had booked their place by coming through a hard-fought repechage on Monday, taking second spot in a thrilling photo-finish, but they were narrowly edged out of the medals on this occasion.

Mary Wilson, Susannah Duncan, Ellie Lewis and Selkirk’s Maddie Arlett had put themselves firmly in contention for a medal in the lightweight women’s quadruple scull final before being caught in the closing stages.

They had been the first GB rowers this week to secure a final spot after finishing runners-up to Italy in Sunday’s heat and got off to an excellent start today, making the early running along with Switzerland.

Italy found their stride in the second 500m and went on to win gold in a new world-best time but GB were moving well and sat in bronze-medal position with 500m to go.

However, they were coming under fierce pressure from Germany and China and, despite digging deep for one final push, were not able to hold on for third place. France also caught them on the line but it had been a fine effort from the GB crew, who more than played their part in a well-contested final.

Thursday’s busy afternoon session also saw GB’s two defending champions in the Senior World Championships – the men’s coxed pair and lightweight pair – reach their respective finals with well-earned wins.

Those finals will take place on Saturday, while Friday will see the U23 championships conclude with seven more GB crews going for medals in the afternoon.

The lightweight men’s four of Ed Fisher, Ben Reeves, Alistair Douglass and Jonathan Jackson race at 3pm BST and the men’s quad – Harry Leask, Rowan Law, Harry Glenister and Andrew Joel – compete at 3.45pm BST.

The women’s and men’s eights race at 4pm BST and 4.45pm BST respectively, either side of Tom Barras in the men’s single final at 4.15pm BST.

The morning session sees three GB crews racing in the Junior World Championships – there are quarter-finals for the men’s double and men’s quad, plus a repechage for the men’s pair.