Graeme Thomas believes that he and double sculls partner John Collins are timing their run to this year’s World Championships perfectly as they took a stellar silver at the World Rowing Cup II in Poznan.
There were a trio of podiums for the British Rowing team on the third and final day of the regatta as the men’s and women’s eights added silver and bronze respectively following Collins’ and Thomas’ effort.
Well-placed to collect a number of podiums after widespread success in the heats yielded 11 A finals on Sunday, hopes were high as Sunday’s racing dawned.
Collins and Thomas were first to strike for GB, sealing an impressive silver in the double sculls, missing out on gold by just 0.21 seconds.
“We’re really pleased with that race – progress is always a good thing,” said Thomas.
“Getting on the podium gives us renewed confidence that the things we’re doing in training really are working and we are stepping forwards.”
The men’s eights were next up, with Olympic champion Moe Sbihi at the forefront of Great Britain’s charge to a second silver of the day.
And while they made it back-to-back podiums, oarsman Tom George believes that they have merely set themselves a benchmark with greater challenges on the horizon.
“There’s definitely work to do back in training but we’re all pretty pleased with how it went today,” said George.
“There were challenging conditions, with a tough headwind in the first half of the race where the course is quite open, but it got much better in the second 1000m when it flattened out and we clicked into our rhythm.”
And, not to be outdone, the women’s equivalent sealed the hat-trick in the final race of the regatta, a boat featuring Rio 2016 silver medallists Zoe Lee and Karen Bennett, holding off New Zealand to notch a podium.
“I think we’ve got an amazing thing going on in this crew,” said crew member Jo Wratten.
“Our ultimate goal this season is to qualify the women’s eight boat for the Olympics at the World Championships, and we’ve all really bought into that with our coach.
“It feels like we’ve building momentum, which is very exciting and means we can deliver our best performance at the World Champs.”
Sunday’s medals cap a successful weekend for GB, as August’s World Rowing Championships in Austria draw ever closer.
Sportsbeat 2019