Jack Beaumont and Angus Groom win double sculls gold, with three more GB medals on the final day of World Cup 2 in Linz


Jack Beaumont and Angus Groom won Great Britain’s second gold of World Cup 2 in Linz as the Brits added four medals to the three they won on Saturday.

The women’s four took silver in a great battle with Australia, as did the men’s eight behind Germany, while the women’s pair of Rowan McKellar and Hattie Taylor took a brilliant bronze medal.

Great Britain won gold, silver and bronze in Saturday’s Para-rowing finals, with the seven overall medals enough for fifth on the medal table.

Beaumont and Groom sat second to Germany through the halfway mark but turned on the pace in the second half of the race to win by nearly a length.

The duo won silver at World Cup 1 in Belgrade and followed it up with three classy performances in Linz, winning in each round of competition.

The women’s four faced a tough challenge, up against reigning world champions Australia in the final and had the better of them in the first half of the race. But the Aussies came back through in the second thousand and crossed the line half a length up on the British crew.

GB’s men’s eight also took silver behind rivals Germany. Both crews came through Saturday’s repechage, with the Brits coming out on top on that occasion, but in the final the Germans got their bow ball in front early and held off a GB sprint to the line.

Rowan McKellar and Hattie Taylor followed up the silver they won in the eight at World Cup 1 in Belgrade with bronze in the pair behind the dominant Kiwi duo and Italy. Rebecca Girling and Anastasia Chitty in the other GB pair finished fourth, having fought back from an early setback.

The women’s eight pushed Australia hard in their final, keeping up the pressure for the full 2,000m, but try as they might they couldn’t reel back the green and gold boat, trailing by half a length.

GB had two boats in the men’s four final, both of which put in excellent semi-final performances to reach the medal race. GBR2 of James Johnston, Adam Neill, Jacob Dawson and Tom Ford finished fourth, just half a length off bronze, while Harry Glenister, Callum McBrierty, Morgan Hellen and George Rossiter were fifth.

Vicky Thornley also battled hard for fourth place, putting in a second half burst to close down Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen. The Dane held on to third by half a length, with Thornley in fourth.

A string of strong performances saw Matt Rossiter and Ollie Cook reach the men’s pair final on their comeback from injury. The pace was set by the surprise winners from the Czech Republic with the medalling boats finishing ten seconds ahead of the rest of the field, with GB in fifth place.

Both British quadruple sculls made up for the disappointment of missing out on the A finals by dominating their B finals. The women enjoyed a length lead over China in their race while the men opened up an even larger gap over the Ukraine to win by five seconds.

Harry Leask also capped a good weekend of racing with an impressive win in the men’s single sculls B final.

GB had two crews in the lightweight women’s double sculls B final, with Ellie Piggott and Fran Rawlins just edged into second by China, and Gemma Hall and Maddie Arlett finishing fourth.

Jamie Copus and Gavin Horsburgh were five hundredths of a second off third place in their very competitive lightweight double B final, finishing 10th overall.

British Rowing Director of Performance Brendan Purcell said: “We’re very pleased to come away from this very competitive regatta with seven medals, including two impressive golds. The Para-rowers set the tone with some great performances on Saturday and our Olympic-class boats followed suit today. This regatta has set a good benchmark of where we need to be going into the European and World Championships.

“We won’t be sending a full squad to World Cup 3 in Lucerne, with an eye on the Glasgow 2018 European Championships and our crews will be working hard to impress in front of a home crowd in August.”

Results
Women’s
Women’s Pair A final
1. Grace Prendergast & Kerri Gowler (NZL) 7:08.53
2. Alessandra Patelli & Sara Bertolasi (ITA1) 7:15.33
3. Rowan McKellar & Hattie Taylor (GBR2) 7:22.24
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4. Anastasia Chitty & Rebecca Girling (GBR1) 7:24.92

Women’s Four A final
1. Australia 6:30.83
2. Great Britain (Fiona Gammond, Holly Norton, Karen Bennett, Rebecca Shorten) 6:32.47
3. China 1 6:33.20

Women’s Eight A final
1. Netherlands 6:03.78
2. New Zealand 6:05.56
3. Australia 6:09.55
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4. Great Britain (Sara Parfett, Emily Ford, Rebecca Chin, Jo Wratten, Katherine Douglas, Caragh McMurtry, Holly Hill, Sam Courty, Matilda Horn (cox)) 6:10.70

Women’s Single Scull A final
1. Jeannine Gmelin (SUI) 7:19.52
2. Magdalena Lobnig (AUT1) 7:22.93
3. Fie Udby Erichsen (DEN) 7:23.08
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4. Vicky Thornley (GBR1) 7:24.08

Women’s Single Scull B final
1. Diana Dymchenko (UKR) 7:28.50
2. Hannah Osborne (NZL) 7:28.88
3. Kiri Tontodonati (ITA) 7:34.44
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5. Alice Baatz (GBR2) 7:42.56

Women’s Quadruple B final
1. Great Britain (Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne, Melissa Wilson, Jess Leyden, Zoe Lee) 6:27.96
2. Belarus 6:30.40
3. Norway 6:32.40

Lightweight Women’s Double Scull B final
1. Qiang Wu & Guoru Liang (CHN2) 7:03.44
2. Ellie Piggott & Fran Rawlins (GBR1) 7:04.57
3. Fang Chen & DanDan Pan (CHN2) 7:05.02
–
4. Gemma Hall & Maddie Arlett (GBR2) 7:07.34

Men’s
Men’s Pair A final
GBR1
1. Lukas Helesic & Jakub Podrazil (CZE) 6:27.55
2. Martin Sinkovic & Valent Sinkovic (CRO1) 6:28.43
3. Valentin Onfroy & Theophile Onfroy (FRA1) 6:29.44
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5. Matt Rossiter & Oliver Cook (GBR2) 6:42.75

Men’s Four A final
1. Australia 5:50.70
2. Romania 5:53.76
3. Germany 5:56.60
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4. Great Britain 2 (James Johnston, Adam Neill, Jacob Dawson, Tom Ford) 5:57.98
5. Great Britain 1 (Harry Glenister, Callum McBrierty, Morgan Hellen, George Rossiter) 5:58.79

Men’s Eight A final
1. Germany 5:26.88
2. Great Britain (Tom Ransley, Tom George, Tom Jeffery, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, Moe Sbihi, Alan Sinclair, Matt Tarrant, Will Satch, Henry Fieldman (cox)) 5:28.18
3. Netherlands 1 5:29.37

Men’s Single Scull B final
1. Harry Leask (GBR) 6:52.82
2. Vladislave Ryabcev (RUS1) 6:54.17
3. Thibaut Verhoeven (FRA) 6:54.73

Men’s Double Scull A final
1. Angus Groom & Jack Beaumont (GBR) 6:11.24
2. Timo Piontek & Lars Hartig (GER) 6:13.71
3. Nico Stahlberg & Roman Roeoesli 6:14.49

Men’s Quadruple Scull B final
1. Great Britain (John Collins, Jonny Walton, Graeme Thomas, Tom Barras) 5:45.53

2. Ukraine 5:50.35
3. USA 5:52.41
Lightweight Men’s Double Scull B final
1. Andri Struzina & Julian Mueller (SUI) 6:24.86
2. Alexander Modest & Emil Espensen (DEN) 6:25.02
3. Alfonso Scalzone & Gabriel Soares (ITA2) 6:26.87
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4. Jamie Copus & Gavin Horsburgh (GBR2) 6:26.92