Newsletter This Time LRC Brits* Capture Wyfold
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Page 1 LONDON ROWING CLUB Newsletter ...and Bill gets his hands on the Queen Mother Contents September 2011 2-3 World Championships, Bled 4-6 Henley reports and results 6 Other race reports 7 Amsterdam and Lucerne Parliamentary boat race 8 Chris Anness wins Doggett’s 9 Four men in a boat Other news This time LRC Brits* capture Wyfold... 10 Obituaries * with a little help from an Aussie or two In the lead up to Henley, Lon- some very quick Australians - of whom And great credit, too, to the don coaches habitually pray for there were seemed to be an awful lot team of coaches who’ve been help- winds from the North; and this year this year. In fact, both the Thames Cup ing Phil. As well as hardy perennials the weather gods smiled, and nobody and the Britannia went to Australian Tam Richmond and Richard Philips, could complain about conditions fa- clubs, leaving LRC the only homegrown this year has seen major contribu- vouring heavyweights. outfit with a win in the club events. tions from Brian Ulliott, James Before the regatta, coach Phil Every LRC crew performed up to or Clarke, Mark Ruscoe, and Stephen Bourguignon reckoned that both his in excess of expectations; and the Feeney, and Tom Killick; and of lead fours were moving faster than whole squad should take both pleasure course from Chief Coach Paul Reedy. ever; and his judgement proved to and pride from the work and the com- be sound, with both “A” fours reach- mitment they put in the period leading ing their respective final; and the up to Henley, and in the performances club denied two trophies only by they achieved during the regatta. Page 2 World Championships, Bled, Slovenia, 28th August - 4th September In the third of the four years leading up to the London Olympics, these World Champion- Photo: Intersport Images/GB Rowing ships fulfilled the additional function of allocating the majority of Olympic qualifying plac- es; adding considerable pressure for the athletes, but for spectators making semis and B finals into compelling viewing. And the timetable was changed, with finals spread over four days. Semis and finals in each event took place on consecutive days; and the tradi- tional finale - the men’s eights - was brought forward to the Thursday. Lightweight Men’s Coxless Four - Bronze Rob Williams Hopes were high that GB, World Champions in Karapiro, could repeat their last year’s performance; especially after their impressive showing in Lucerne. Chris Bartley returned to the boat after recovering from the injury that kept him out of the boat at Lucerne, but the crew retained its Lucerne order, with Rob Williams staying in the stroke seat. Their semi fi- nal promised much, with GB moving away steadily to win by half a length from an impressive Australia, whilst China finished third another half length down in what turned out to be mar- ginally the faster of the two semis. So the signs were favourable. When it came to the final, GB seemed to start well enough, but found themselves last at 500, and still only fifth at the kilometre. Australia had hit the front rowing outstandingly (l to r) Steph Cullen, Imogen Walsh, Katherine Twyman, Andrea Dennis smoothly, closely pursued by Italy. From halfway, GB started to work their way back into con- tention, and by 1500 had got past China and Denmark into third, a length down on the lead- ers, but despite pullingLM4- out all the stops in the last 500, couldn’t get any closer. The gap at Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls - Gold the finish was 2.2s between the winners Australia and GBR in third, with Italy roughly half- Steph Cullen, Imogen Walsh way in between. Bronze may not be what this crew wanted or expected, but any medal in this company is In their heat on Monday, after winning a long, tight struggle with the Chinese by a mere richly earned; and a result which both sharpens desire and cools expectations for 2012 may eight hundredths, GB took the direct route to the final, avoiding the repechages but securing not be entirely bad. themselves a long period of inactivity. In the final, it was Italy who were first to show at the front, with GB in second by 300m. From then, the British girls applied the pressure. At 500, Italy led GB but only by inches, with (l to r) Richard Chambers, Chris Bartley, Paul Mattick, Rob Williams both half a length up on the rest. By 1000, GB had moved into the lead, only by a few feet, but having established a good rhythm they continued to move away decisively to a little over a length, whilst the Chinese challenged Italy. At 1500, GB led China by a length with Italy third. After that,LW4x the Chinese managed to make little impression on the British, whilst USA edged a tiring Italy out of the medals. Photo: Richard Heathcote/World Rowing Gold was a wonderful re- ward for a bunch of athletes who get few chances to per- form internationally, and who, to coin a cliché, seized the day with gusto. And for Imo- gen making her début at this level, there could be no bet- ter way to start an internation- Photo: Intersport Images/GB Rowing al career. GB power off the start in their heat Page 3 Photo: Intersport Images/GB Rowing Photo: Richard Heathcote/World Rowing Team Men’s Quadruple Sculls Bill Lucas At the end of a season in which so much went right, GB must have felt as though their week in Bled was cursed. In their heat they were edged into third place after a protracted tussle with Russia and Ukraine - with a fifth of a second covering all three boats. So they had to progress via the repechage, in which they came up against New Zealand - another tussle, and were edged out of first place by a hundredth of a second - but at least they were through to the A/B semi finals. The draw placed GB in a semi final with Croatia, Russia, and Poland. They were in fourth, behind these three, at 500, well in touch, but after dropping a second in the second 500 they found themselves just over a length down on the leaders at halfway. From there they main- tained the gap through the third quarter, before putting in the fastest finish of all the boats; but it was not enough and they finished fourth, missing the final by 0.4s in a race in which half a length covered the first four boats. Their time was substantially faster than all but the Determination - Hester & Sophie first two boats in the other semi, including Ukraine and New Zealand. Having failed to reach the A final, with only eleven to qualify from this event, the grim possibility of not getting the boat to Dorney then loomed. In the event, GB led their B final almost all the way, albeitM4x narrowly, hitting the front before 500, and getting out to a quarter Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls - Bronze of a length at 1500. When the charge came, GB clung on to finish with about a canvas in Sophie Hosking hand. All six boats were within 2.5s - roughly a length. It was Cuba who failed to qualify for London 2012. Sophie and Hester won their heat and thereby avoided the repechages, progressing di- Photo: Detlev Seyb/World Rowing rect to the A/B semi finals; they got out to an early lead which they held throughout the race, until the last 500 when a gutsy New Zealand crew cut their lead by half. The semi final was a different matter altogether. The Greeks, World Champions from Poznan in 2009, shot off the start pursued by the Chinese and British in that order, with New So near - GB edged out of the A final by Croatia, Russia, and Poland Zealand in fourth. The Greeks had clear water by 500m and two lengths on the field by 1000m, and whilst GB were slowly clawing ground back from the Chinese, NZ were in fact moving best and closing down the British. In the second half, GB got past the Chinese into second, still two lengths down on Greece; but New Zealand put in a desperate finish in the last quarter, taking them past GB into second and leaving an increasing ragged-looking GB to fend off ChinaLW2x who were catching them fast all the way to the line. It took a photo to sepa- rate third and fourth. The verdict came in favour of GB by four hundredths - an inch or so. The final was again dominated by Greece; but this time Sophie and Hester stuck to them, and, out in lane 1, refused to let them get away. Through the middle of the race, it was USA in third who seemed to pose the greatest threat to a silver for GB, but in fact when the last 500 came, it was the Canadians who charged through to take silver, with GB still holding off USA and Australia to take the bronze. Despite putting in another big finish, New Zealand, who had given GB such trouble in the semi, were never quite on the pace and finished last, out of the medal hunt. Page 4 Thames - LRC A Wyfold - LRC B Britannia - LRC A Henley 2011 Britannia - LRC B Wyfold - LRC A (l to r) Marco Espin, Mark Aldred, Phil Bourguignon (Senior Coach), Alex Cawthorne, Richard Dunley Thames - LRC B Wyfold - LRC C Page 5 HRR report LRC results at Henley The stars of the show, of course, Verdict Barrier Fawley Finish Verdict Barrier Fawley Finish were our Wyfold “A” crew.