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Eight medals in Munich for GBRT juniors

There was double gold for the women’s four and eight medals in total as the GB Rowing Team’s juniors continued their early preparations for this summer’s World Junior Championships with some pleasing performances at the Munich International Junior Regatta in Germany.

Frances Russell, Bryony Lawrence, Alex Rankin and India Somerside were impressive as they won the junior women’s four final in 7:25.41 on Saturday. They were also first home in the Division 1 race on Sunday after leading from start to finish.

The junior men’s eight of James Plaut, Bertie Woodward-Fisher, Marcus Jonas, Benedict Aldous, Oliver Ayres, Dom Jackson, Oskar Arzt-Jones, Seb Benzecry and cox Vlad Saigau won silver on Saturday afternoon.

Plaut, Aldous, Ayres, Benzecry and Saigau also won bronze on Sunday when they were joined in the eight by Felix Drinkall, Oswald Stocker, Casper Woods and Freddie Davidson.

That was GB’s second bronze medal of the day, adding to the one won by Lola Anderson, Georgie Grant, Sheyi Blackett and Lucy Glover in the junior women’s quadruple sculls.

Further gold medals were secured in Sunday’s divisional races by Hattie Orr and Meg Saunders in the junior women’s pair; Jonas and Arzt-Jones in the junior men’s pair; and Adam Teece, Woodward-Fisher, Jackson and Matthew Rowe in the junior men’s four.

The junior men’s quad of Nick Plaut, Josh Armstrong, Tom Digby and George Lawton narrowly missed out on a medal in their final on Sunday, while there were also fourth-placed finishes on Saturday for Drinkall, Jackson, Stocker and Davidson in the junior men’s four plus Teece and Rowe in the junior men’s pair.

Nick Plaut and George Lawton also reached the final of the junior men’s double, placing fifth.

Robin Dowell, Lead Coach for the GBRT Junior Team, said: “I am happy to have seen some of our potential World Championship athletes racing against some of the other nations. This puts us in a very good position moving forwards.”

GB Junior Team Manager John Layng added: “Overall we were pleased with the standard of our crews, there was lots of promise.

“It was the biggest junior regatta that the Munich organisers have ever run, featuring 850 competitors from 15 nations, so it was a really good test for us.

“It was important for us to see how they fared against the best in Europe and also for the rowers to gain more international racing experience as we look ahead to the summer.”

Layng thanked the rowers’ clubs and schools for their support. The youngsters are now back in training domestically for the National Schools Regatta and the Henley Royal Regatta before the final GB Junior Trials take place at Nottingham’s National Water Sport Centre from July 7-11.

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