Jack Beaumont and Angus Groom picked up double sculls gold as Great Britain won four medals on the final day of competition at World Cup 2 in Linz, Austria. The women’s four of Fiona Gammond, Holly Norton, Karen Bennett and Rebecca Shorten took silver, as did the men’s eight, while the women’s pair of Rowan McKellar and Hattie Taylor took bronze. Sunday’s haul took Great Britain’s tally to seven and fifth in the medal table with director of performance Brendan Purcell pleased with the tone set ahead of the European Championships. He 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." Beaumont and Groom sat second to Germany through the halfway mark in the double sculls 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 reigning world champions Australia in the final and had the early advantage only for the Aussies to sneak through and cross the line first by half a length.
Tom Ransley, Tom George, Tom Jeffery, Oliver Wynne-Griffith, Moe Sbihi, Alan Sinclair, Matt Tarrant, Will Satch and Henry Fieldman (cox) were in the men’s eight that won silver.
Having come through Saturday’s repechage, the Great Britain crew were pipped to the post by Germany who took the gold medals.
McKellar and Taylor followed up the silver they won in the eight at World Cup 1 in Belgrade with bronze in the pair behind New Zealand and Italy.
Rebecca Girling and Anastasia Chitty in the other GB pair finished fourth, having fought back from an early setback.
Rio Olympic silver medallist Vicky Thornley also battled hard for a fourth-place finish as Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen beat her to the final medal in the single scull.
Sportsbeat 2018