Helen Glover returned to winning ways as she triumphed in the Women’s Single at the GB Rowing Team Senior, U23 and FISU Open Trials.
The double Olympic Champion beat Leicester’s Lauren Henry into second place as the country’s top athletes once again descended upon Boston, Lincolnshire. Henry came away as the top U23 athlete.
The University of Birmingham’s Katie Mole, rounded out the top three. Following on from a Wingfield Sculls to forget, Mole returned to her outstanding form that she had displayed earlier in the season when she won Championship Singles at Scullers’ Head.
Twickenham’s Vwairé Obukohwo was the next best U23 athlete, but she was pushed into fifth place overall, after an outstanding row from Olivia Bates, the lightweight sculler from Nottinghamshire County RA, vying for her place in the FISU team.
This trial saw all of the Women racing in single sculls, we can look forward to pairs racing in a few months time with bated breath.
In the Men’s Single, Twickenham had another brilliant performance. Callum Dixon, who placed seventh overall in the Men’s Single at U23s in Varese, snuck into the top spot. Dixon edged out the former U23 World Champion, Seb Devereux by less than 0.2s.
It was a day to remember for the Devereux brothers. Miles, fresh from a summer in a British vest, was head and shoulders above the rest of the U23 field.
The rest of the best U23s featured Joseph Middleton from UL as well as Josh Matthews and Stephen Hughes, the later separated by two seconds.
One of the most surprising performances came from Leander’s new recruit, Tobias Schröder. The Boat Race winner was third overall, beating fellow club-mates and outstanding scullers such as Rory Harris and Oliver Costley.
The Men’s Pairs always produce some of the finest racing. This year’s field was a melting pot of battle-hardened veterans and naive freshers ready to try and claim a scalp or two. The safest bet of the weekend would be to see Jacob Dawson and Matt Rossiter and they met all expectations. The Leander duo won by 14s over Matthew Heywood & Jack Prior of Oxford Brookes. The Brookes boys were the fastest FISU eligible crew.
The FISU fight was hotly contested. Pairs ranked five through thirteen are all in the mix to represent Great Britain in Canada next year. 40s was the margin between 5th place, and fastest U23 Pair, Oliver Parish & Luca Ferraro and 13th ranked Isaac Workman & Laurence Ellis of Molesey BC.
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