Check out our full results run-down and analysis of every Olympic-class event at the European Championships.
What a great return to competition for our British athletes after 20 months of training. Topping the medal table with five golds, four silvers and three bronze medals, it does seem as though GB are back to their winning ways.
Mother of three, Helen Glover and junior doctor Polly Swann made their mark on the women’s pairs, winning gold and leading for most of the race. A late charge from the Romanians and Spaniards took a chunk out of their lead towards the end, but the experienced pair held them off to take the title. However, with the world champions from New Zealand and quick crews from Australia, Canada and the USA still to come into the mix, GB’s women’s pair will need to keep working hard to repeat this result on the world stage.
The men’s sweep team were awe-inspiring, resembling crews of old and winning both the four and eight. The four were cool off the blocks, using their speed through the middle to carry them ahead and cling on as the Romanians and Italians sprinted for the line.
The men’s eight appeared to be a classic race initially, with the Germans taking a significant lead early on. However, around the 1000m mark, the field started coming back on them, with the British taking the lead around 1500m. Approaching the line, the Romanians and Dutch overtook the Germans as well, leaving the famous Deutschland-Achter in 4th place, their lowest finish this Olympiad.
The British para squad dominated their opposition, with the PR2 mixed double and PR3 mixed four both winning gold and Ben Pritchard winning silver in the PR1 men’s single.
The women’s sculling squad performed much better than previous results predicted, with new athletes in the quad and double helping them win silver and bronze, respectively. Vicky Thornley also won silver in the women’s singles with a breakthrough performance from Russia’s Hanna Prakhatsen leading the field.
Imogen Grant and Emily Craig in the lightweight women’s doubles won silver, Graeme Thomas and John Collins won bronze in the men’s doubles, the women’s four won bronze – a result which may be a disappointment to them being the top-ranked crew from Great Britain.
Matt Haywood put in a sterling performance, coming 9th in the men’s singles overall; he will aim to qualify this boat for the Tokyo Olympics at the last chance regatta, as will the men’s lightweight double, who pulled out having missed out on the A final. The men’s quad was in the mix for medals but were outpaced towards the end and finished 5th. The men’s pair did well in their B final, winning and finishing 7th overall; they too will contest the last chance regatta to qualify for Tokyo. Maddie Arlett impressed, making the A final in the lightweight women’s single, where she placed 5th.
A great day at the office for our British Rowing Team, who no doubt will leave Varese with confidence that their time away from racing has not done them any harm, in fact, quite the opposite. It will be exciting to see how they perform at the World Cup regattas, where nations worldwide will also compete.
That’s all for now. If you’re hungry for more, check out any of our other pieces from The Catch, listen to the latest podcast episode, or flick through our race previews.
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