A British hit at first Rowing World Cup

The gold rush began in the women’s double sculls with Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins. The two Olympic medallists then joined their teammates Beth Rodford and Annie Vernon to win a second gold later in the day in the quad.

British head coach, Juergen Grobler, was all smiles when the British crews went one – two in the men’s double sculls. Matthew Wells and Marcus Bateman took gold while the second British crew of William Lucas and Sam Townsend won silver. "The one-two in the men's double scull was the most exciting moment of the day, undoubtedly," said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner in a statement for GB Rowing Team News. "That just shows the strength of the programme that we can bring new people up through it with three of the four rowers having come through our "Start" talent identification and development programme.”

The British continued on their gold medal spree in the men’s four. The men’s and women’s eight also won, with men’s eight six seat Greg Searle announcing to the rowing world that the first step of his comeback career was going to plan. Searle, 38, last rowed internationally at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and began training again late last year.

Second in the World Cup points, China, although not securing gold, won silver in the women’s pair and double and also took bronze medals in the women’s single and eight. The Chinese team was a mixture of new blood and experienced talent with some rowing in never-seen-before combinations. Bronze medallist in the single, Bin Tang, is an Olympic Champion from her country’s quad. China had the biggest squad competing in Bled.
Italy finished third overall with silver in the lightweight men’s double and the men’s quad. They also secured a very satisfying bronze in the lightweight men’s four.

Points for the overall World Cup trophy are awarded only in the 14 Olympic events. Great Britain also took gold in the international event, the lightweight men’s single. Olympic Champion in the lightweight men’s double, Zac Purchase, won the race in his first comeback to international competition since the Beijing Olympics. Great Britain had further success in two of the four adaptive rowing events – the arms, shoulders men’s single (Tom Aggar) and the legs, trunk, arms mixed coxed four (Kelsie Gibson, Naomi Riches, James Roe, Ryan Chamberlain and coxswain Rhiannon Jones).

Great Britain was cautious about their success as Germany, Australia, the United States and New Zealand did not send complete teams to the Bled Rowing World Cup. But the 75 points earned by Great Britain puts them well ahead of China (32 points and Italy (27 points) as they head towards the second Rowing World Cup for 2010.
The second stage of the Rowing World Cup series begins in Munich, Germany, on 18 June and goes through until 20 June, 2010.