Great Britain wins U23 gold and bronze at World Rowing Championships in Canada
Great Britain won two special medals on the first day of the U23 finals at the 2024 World Rowing Senior, Under 23 and Under 19 Championships, in St Catharines, Canada
Photo: Benedict Tufnell
Ben Jackson coached the Women鈥檚 pair (BW2-) of Holly Youd and Anna Grace to an incredible gold medal finish, more than two seconds ahead of Spain. After the race, with her World Champion medal around her neck, Holly said: 鈥淚t was nice when we were warming up and as soon as we started racing it got a bit choppy. We had a race plan and we stuck to it and this was the best possible outcome! If you told me at the start of the year I鈥檇 be a World Champion, I would have said 鈥榓bsolutely not!鈥
It was a bronze medal for the Women鈥檚 quadruple sculls (BW4x) of Finnola Stratton, Meg Knight, Lily Abbott and Ellie Cooke, coached by Chris Bartley. Lily said: 鈥淚t was really cool. We had a quick start and I think the whole thing was just a blur. It just happened really quickly. That鈥檚 probably the fastest we鈥檝e ever gone so it’s pretty cool. We said coming into this that hopefully this is the summer for GB women鈥檚 quads so they [the Team GB Olympic Champion women鈥檚 quad] were a pretty cool inspiration.鈥
Ellie Cooke added: 鈥淪culling in GB is on the way up and hopefully we鈥檝e contributed to that. We鈥檝e got some amazing talent coming through, some amazing coaches and the Olympics was obviously an inspiration, with the double also making the podium in Paris, hopefully that just keeps on going for women鈥檚 rowing!鈥
Photo: Benedict Tufnell
Earlier in the day, the Men鈥檚 pair (BM2-) of Mack Carr and Richard Hawes, coached by Sam Sheppard, comfortably won their B final, placing seventh overall in a very strong field.
