Somerset rowers strike gold at last world cup before London
18th June 2012SOMERSET's Helen Glover and Paul Mattick won gold for the GB rowing Team at the final world cup before London 2012.
Glover, a former Millfield School pupil who only took up rowing four years ago, won gold on her birthday on Sunday in Munich with Heather Stanning in the women's pair ahead of the world champions from New Zealand.
Mattick, from Frome, won the non-Olympic-class lightweight men's pair on Saturday with Bath graduate Adam Freeman-Pask - and one of them will go to London 2012 as a reserve for the lightweight crews.
It was GB's women and lightweight crews who led the way in Munich with all four of the open weight women’s crews winning medals on Sunday at the season’s final world cup at which Britain won eight medals – three of them golds.
“We’ve actually had a good day with some excellent results," said David Tanner, the GB Rowing Team Performance Director on Sunday. "Many crews have stepped on from the last world cup. We’ve also had some disappointments.
“I’d like to say a big congratulations to the women’s squad on their medals. There were outstanding performances in the women’s double and pair and also from the lightweight men’s four”.
There were stand-out performances from the women’s pair of birthday-girl Glover and Heather Stanning as well as from the women’s double scull of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, coached by Britain's chief coach of the women and lightweight crews, Paul Thompson.
Both the women's pair and double scull are unbeaten this season and each has racked up a hat-trick of world cup golds.
Britain’s lightweight men’s four also put in an eye-catching performance to take gold. “We are such a strong crew,” said Richard Chambers who was clearly pleased that his younger sibling Peter is back in the crew after a brief spell out with injury, joining him and Chris Bartley and Rob Williams. The Chinese were missing from Sunday’s field which otherwise included all the top crews.
Mattick was a world champion in the ligthweight four in 2010 but lost his seat this season to Peter Chambers. However he has continued to impress in the lightweight pair with Freeman-Pask and showed he is ready to be called upon if needed with victory in Munich.
“It went pretty much to plan," said Mattick. "We had a gear or two left to use but it is always better to be a bit cautious rather than too brave. I was very happy as the first 1k disappeared and crews kept drifting off behind us and that’s a really nice feeling. We were always intending to have a strong 3rd 500m and we had a good lead which doesn’t happen often in lightweight racing
“It’s very exciting - whenever I get in the boat with Adam it seems to go well - he’s unbeaten this season so it’s a pretty good result for GB all round.”
Freeman-Pask added: “At the beginning of the season I didn’t even think I’d be on the team and I’ve got a reasonable haul this year compared to most years so it just goes to show that when you are ready to hang up your oars just stick in there. I hope that I can get better and I just want to do more racing.”
The GB men’s four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Alex Gregory and Pete Reed remained relatively upbeat despite taking silver in a narrow defeat to Australia. “We are still part of an incredibly successful GB squad now it’s the same as always," said Andrew Triggs Hodge. "We go away to training camp and will put in the hard work and attention to detail in the six weeks before the Games begin."
Reed switched from the bow seat to no.2 for the final after the Australians beat the Brits in the semis. Reed said of the change in the line-up: “We have tried out several different things and even after our world’s best time in Lucerne we wanted to search for more speed.”
Britain’s other medals were all bronze from the women’s quadruple scull, women’s and men’s eight, and Alan Campbell in the men’s single.
The disappointments included another sixth place for Olympic Champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase in the lightweight men’s double scull. “I know we were sixth both here and in Lucerne but we have moved on a lot," said Hunter. "We had the speed but not the fitness”.
On Saturday Britain also won golds in the mixed adaptive coxed four and lightweight men’s pair as well as a bronze in the adaptive men’s single scull.
The Olympic crews will be kitted out for Team GB at Loughborough today and tomorrow before heading to overseas training camps until shortly before the Games. The Paralympic crews will be announced in a row past at Henley Royal Regatta on June 27.