Five Golds, Three Silvers and the World Cup
12th May 2008GB Rowing men's four buried some significant ghosts today on the Munich regatta course which witnessed them lose their world title eight months ago on a day when GB won five golds and three silvers - all bar one silver in Olympic classes - as well as the world cup points trophy.
Today it was a different story. The Camelot-backed quartet were machine-like in their march to the line to take gold with Tom Lucy in the bow seat racing Steve Williams, Peter Reed and Andy Hodge as a substitute for the recently selected but injured Tom James.
"It couldn't have been better today", said Hodge. "That's the best start to the season we've had yet".
Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase were also winners in the Siemens-sponsored lightweight men's double as were the open weight counterparts Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham.
The British women's quadruple scull, world champions, underlined their Beijing potential with a win against strong opposition from Germany and China and Alan Campbell set the tone for the whole finals session with his gold in the men's single scull which showed the progress he has made during the winter.
Britain's silvers came from the lightweight men's four and the newly-rehsuffled men's eight who gave Australia a storming race to the line in the final event of the day as well as from Andrea Dennis in the lightweight women's single scull.
"It's been a significantly good day for GB Rowing to open the season's racing programme but we need to keep our feet on the ground. Not every nation took part in some events and there is a long way to go yet this summer", said GB Rowing's Performance Director David Tanner today.