Great Britain saved the best until last at the World Championships. The men’s eight delivered the performance of the weekend in the final race of the regatta yesterday to win gold and retain their world title in thrilling fashion.
It was their fourth gold medal of the championships, in the wake of those secured commandingly by the mixed coxed four, the women’s pair and the men’s four. What set the British eight’s achievement apart was that it was so unexpected.
Last year, the eight had been Britain’s top boat, with all resources ploughed into winning a world title in rowing’s blue-riband event for the first time. This season, Jürgen Gröbler, the chief men’s coach, prioritised the four, leaving the eight to be rebuilt.
It was a long and complicated process. At the start of the summer they had been slower in training than the men’s four. The line-up changed through the World Cup series, but in the past seven weeks things began to click and they got their timing spot-on.
Britain made a slow start yesterday, but they led at the halfway mark, at which point Phelan Hill, the cox, yelled: “This is our race, this is our moment.” Britain then withstood everything Germany could throw at them over the second 1,000 metres.
Advertisement
Pete Reed, the double Olympic champion, dug deeper in the engine room of the boat than he had ever had to before. Constantine Louloudis, the stroke, remembered the 2012 Olympic final when the Britain crew had challenged the Germans and then faltered in the final stages to finish with the bronze medal. He was determined not to suffer a repeat.
“We always talked about this project in terms of winning, but if I am honest I don’t think I believed we could win it until about three days ago,” Louloudis said. “We just came to the boil at the right time. Eights don’t have a very long shelf life and we just timed it perfectly.
“We hit the rhythm through the middle of the race and we just weren’t going to give up. In the race, that Olympic race was in my mind. I overcooked the Olympic one and that one I got right.”
Reed slumped back into the boat on the finish line as he tried to process what the crew had achieved. “This is one of British rowing’s biggest achievements — and there have been some great ones — because we were so far behind at the beginning of the season,” he said. “The speed we have made up has been amazing. I can’t believe we have done it.”
Britain had ten medal-winning crews, the most of any nation, and finished second on the medal table behind New Zealand, who won six golds.
Advertisement
The men’s quadruple sculls missed out on gold by 0.09sec on Saturday, while the men’s pair, the coxed pair and Tom Aggar, the 30-year-old arms-only single sculler, also won silver medals.
Saturday was dominated by Britain’s two leading boats, the women’s pair and the men’s four, both winning in commanding fashion.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning triumphed in record time to add the world title to their Olympic crown, extending Britain’s unbeaten run in the pair to three years.
The men’s four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, George Nash, Mohamed Sbihi and Alex Gregory, who had all been in last year’s eight, then took to centre stage and completed an unbeaten season with a performance that underlined their potential to be the best crew Britain has produced in the class.
All in all, it was a successful and satisfying regatta for Sir David Tanner, the Great Britain rowing performance director, two years out from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “What a climax to a great set of finals and medals from our team,” Tanner said.
Advertisement
“It was an exceptional achievement to defend our eight’s gold from last year. The pair are a fabulous combination. The four have set a new standard. We are very strong at the moment.”
Pulling in right direction for Rio
Men’s four Britain have won gold at every Olympics since 2000 and the present crew have the potential to become the best of all
Men’s eight Britain are developing a depth of talent in sweep racing that allowed the eight to become double world champions and the pair to win silver
Men’s quadruple scull Missed out on gold by 0.09sec, but silver was an improvement on bronze from 2013 and they are the fastest British quad on record
Advertisement
Women’s pair Helen Glover, below, is unbeaten in the boat in three years, winning Olympic gold with Heather Stanning and two world titles, with Stanning and Polly Swann
Women’s lightweight double scull A relatively inexperienced crew messed up their semi-final but they won the B final in a world’s best time. There is more to come from them
Para-rowing The mixed coxed four keep setting the standards and Tom Aggar is back among the medals again in the arms-only single scull