South West Rowers Impress at U23 Trials
16th April 2012South West rowers made their mark at the GB Rowing Team's U23 trials which heralded the start of the team’s 'Row to Rio 2016' campaign.
University of Bath's Amelda Gare finished second in the women's pair final with Molesey Boat Club's Karen Bennett at the GB Rowing Team's training base at Caversham near Reading on Saturday while fellow Bath student Gabrielle Rodriquez finished fourth in the single scull.
Hereford RC's Jamie Coombes also finished a close fourth in the lightweight men's single scull.
“We have had a high standard of competition during this year’s Trials and I’ve been impressed with the attitude and the strength in depth shown by our young rowers. Clearly we have a promising future”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner for whom the event marked the start of the “Row to Rio 2016” campaign.
Many of the crews who took part will return for more testing and crew formation in the week ahead to shape the GB Rowing Team line-ups for this year’s World U23 Championships, in early July in Trakai, Lithuania, the World University Championships (FISU) and the European Championships in September.
Twin brothers Scott and Mason Durant featured on opposite sides in the men’s pair final - one of the tightest races of Saturday's finals.
Honours went to Tarrant and Scott Durant, who won from Mason and Molesey Boat Club's Fred Gill in a time of 7:23.72.
With 16 pairs involved this was one of the toughest events across the two days of racing and the final was close until the final 250m.
The lightweight men’s single scull – won by Start* rower Zak Lee Green – also provided some relatively close racing. Lee Green, from Cardiff but studying dentistry at Manchester University, fought all the way down the course with Stuart Heap of London Rowing Club before winning in 8:04.43.
With strong headwinds providing challenging conditions many other fields in the finals were more spread out.
Graeme Thomas, a talented rugby player turned rower and also from the Siemens and lottery-backed Start programme, continued his good run of form this season by winning the open weight men’s single scull in a time of 7:46.63.
Thomas was a finalist last month in the senior GB Rowing Team Senior Trials on the Olympic course at Eton-Dorney. At the U23 trials he was in the racing pack at halfway before emerging strongly to win over Jack Beaumont, son of former GB international Peter Beaumont.
Beaumont, from Sir William Borlase School. is in his first year out of the juniors. The B final in this event was won by Jamie Kirkwood.
Kirkwood raced in the World U23 GB lightweight four last year but raced as an open-weight after a winter affected by illness.
Molesey BC’s Ruth Walczak dominated the lightweight women’s single scull from Lottie Burgess of Wallingford RC to win in a time of 9:11.35.
Leander's Tina Stiller, a former GB world cup senior squad member and World U23 team member, continues her return to the sport after a back injury and won the open-weight single scull in 8:53.33 from Georgie Hazell of Reading University.
Yasmin Tredell and Olivia Oakes were probably expected to show well in the women’s pair final but were involved in a traffic accident en route to the training centre. Badly shaken but largely unhurt, the decision was taken to withdraw them from racing in an event which was won by Leonora Kennedy and Zoe Lee of Imperial College.
*The GB Rowing Team’s talent identification and development programme involving schools, clubs and Universities.