Rowing: Britain makes waves at world cup

British crews opened their Olympic campaign by scooping up five gold and two silver medals and topping the overall points at the first round of the rowing world cup. Ghosts were laid and opportunities realised, not least by the men’s four who, robbed of trying out their new line-up when newcomer Tom James went out with a rib injury, outshone their event with young Tom Lucy as substitute.

They had clear water after 750 metres and then opened a three-length lead that blew away all the doubts of the last two months as to why they lost their way in last year’s world championships. And it did Lucy no harm in the quest for a permanent seat in an Olympic crew.

The women’s quad also stormed their race from the front against two Chinese boats and a German crew, all of whom have made life difficult for them before now. “We have moved on by fractions, and our race is now strong in all parts,” said Debbie Flood.

Alan Campbell set the day rolling with a brilliant race in the single sculls. His best moment was when he increased the length lead he had built after 1200 metres to a length and a couple of feet of clear water over the Czech, Ondre Synek, world silver medallist in 2007. His worst was having to engage his legendary finish to hold Synek’s counterattack, pumping his rate up to 41 and heaving his shoulders as he crossed the line.

“We’ve taken him down once, and we intend to take him down again,” said Campbell’s coach Bill Barry, well pleased with the start of the season that also saw off the Olympic champion Olaf Tufte, who finished third. “It can’t be our best race, that’s got to be in August, so it’s back to basics on the Tideway tomorrow.”

The double scullers Matt Wells and Steve Rowbotham came out of a bad winter from Clemens Wenzel and Falko Nolte of Germany with 500 metres to go and extended it to half a length before the Germans indicated that they were not going to lie down. “We left our change of gears as late as we could, knowing that the later we leave it, the more we have to give it,” Wells said. Neither crew knew whom crossed the line first, so close it was. On the watch, it was 16/100ths of a second.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter put their authoritative win in the lightweight doubles to being better as a unit. “We’re sculling a double instead of two singles,” Purchase said.

The world champion lightweight four claim that the gold would have been theirs if they had not messed up their start. The Australians gave the men’s eight the slip and just managed to hold onto the lead. “It was an all right race,” said Alex Partridge, the bow man. “We got caught with our pants in our hands off the start.”

Interesting? Click here to explore further