Somerset rower wins gold at World Cup
7th May 2012Somerset rowers made the medal podium for the GB Rowing Team in the first World Cup of 2012.
Frome's Paul Mattick won gold in the non-Olympic-class lightweight men's pair with Adam Freeman-Pask in while ex Millfield School pupil Helen Glover won the women's pair with Heather Stanning.
All 12 GB Rowing Team crews that started Sunday's finals at the World Cup in Belgrade finished their journey on the podium as Britain won four golds, six silver and two bronze medals to add to an international-class gold (Mattick) and a silver from Saturday's racing.
Britain also took the overall world cup trophy by 79 points to Germany’s 47.
“It’s been a very good day”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner. “To win 12 medals from 12 starts is as good if not better than I would have hoped before coming here.
“It was a good field here but we know there are more teams to come in for the next world cups so we will not be sitting back on our laurels from here”, he said.
Glastonbury's 2011 World silver medallist, Cameron Nichol, missed out on racing in Belgrade after his partner in a second GB men's pair boat, Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, was called back into the men's eight to replace the injured Constantine Louloudis.
Mattick has paired up with Freeman-Pask since missing out on a seat in the Olympic-class lightweight men's four for the first World Cup. The GB were leading virtually from starter’s buzzer to the finish buoy-line in Belgrade on Saturday in the lightweight
men’s pair final.
Mattick, 2010 World Champion in the lightweight men’s four, looked across with 350m to go from his bow-seat and would have seen that the remainder of the field were trying to come back strongly.
He could also see that barring accidents, the British duo would take gold – as they duly did in 6:36.22 from the Czech Republic in second and France in third.
“That felt very quick from the start today”, said Freeman Pask. “It all seems to have come together. We’ve had some pretty dark days trying to get it right so it was really enjoyable today”.
Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, the Olympic and World Champions, held off a spirited Greek challenge to take gold on Sunday. Reigning World Champions Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger were also winners on Sunday with some quality given to their race by a strong German double.
A further gold were added by the men’s four of Alex Gregory, Tom James, Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge. The quartet showed on Sunday that is it is beginning to fire by dominating from the front from the halfway.
“We’ve shown glimpses of real speed in training recently but we haven’t quite recreated it”, said Hodge. “We have our feet on the ground and some of the big nations are still to join the party”.
Their victory came halfway through the finals programme which was opened with Heather Stanning and Helen Glover winning gold in the women’s pair.
Tanner added: “Whilst proud of the whole team I guess I’m particularly excited by the performances of our two new male crews – the men’s pair and double scull who both won silvers – we knew they were talented but you don’t know how they are going to perform in this kind of hot-house.
“There were also some very disappointed silver medalists, like the men’s eight who lost out to World Champions, Germany. But that shows how ambitious they are”.
Further silvers were won by the lightweight women’s double of Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland, Alan Campbell in the men’s single and the lightweight men’s four of Chris Bartley, Rob Williams and the Chambers brothers Richard and Peter.
The women’s eight and quadruple scull were GB’s bronze medalists.
Earlier this week Hester Goodsell, 2008 Olympian in the lightweight women’s double scull and twice a World Championships medalist, announced her retirement from the sport at international level and will return to work as a music teacher in September.