‘Most composed I’ve ever felt’
BySportsbeat
Published 27/04/2024 at 20:40 GMT
The women’s four clinched gold in Hungary alongside victorious performances from the women’s quad, men’s eight and mixed PR3. It was a memorable opening day of the championships for British Rowing, after taking four golds and one silver medal. Meanwhile, the men’s eight also secured a fourth title in a row in the boat after holding off a late challenge from Germany.READING, ENGLAND – APRIL 16: Helen Glover walks out of the boathouse during the GB Rowing Trials and Small Boat British Championships at the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake on April 16, 2023 in Caversham, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Image credit: Getty Images
Two-time Olympic champion Helen Glover revealed that she has never felt as composed after winning women’s four European gold.
The 37-year-old clinched victory in Szeged alongside Esme Booth, Sam Redgrave and Rebecca Shorten just months out from a possible fourth Olympic Games for Glover.
The quartet soared to gold over defending champions Romania in a time of six minutes and 53.95 seconds and Glover was quick to note her confidence in the new crew after two victories on the trot this season.
“Gold was definitely what we were after but it was also the most composed I’ve ever felt in a race.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in our crew and I had this sense that it was still a learning process. I’m really excited that we are new and still have so much to learn.
“Having said that, you’re still in a race to win it and it was nice being able to play around in different ways and be confident in winning.
“It was about making sure we were solid enough in the middle that we could do our own thing for the rest of the race.”
British Rowing stormed to four golds and one silver on the opening day of finals in Hungary, with the reigning women’s quad world champions also picking up a continental title in an Olympic year.
Lauren Henry, Hannah Scott, Lola Anderson and Georgie Brayshaw stormed to gold following a disappointing outing at the opening World Cup of the season, finally hitting the mark after a shaky start.
“At the start of the season we had some teething problems but we’re learning from that,” said Scott.
“And that was a display of the work that’s gone on in the past week and a half for us.
“I definitely think that we’ve always been on this track, and it shows the work that we’ve put in over the winter.
“I’m now glad that we’ve delivered under pressure.”
Also adding to their world title were the men’s eight who held off a late comeback from Germany in the final 500m to clinch Britain’s fourth title in a row in the boat.
The crew have seen a golden last few years and have cemented themselves as the ones to beat at every regatta – a pressure that James Rudkin believes they can rise to.
“We’re happy with that,” he said. “We know that we’ve got to get the boat out going fast like we did in the first 1km.
“Then we know that people were going to try and challenge us and bring some pressure which the Germans tried to do.
“But we rose to that pressure well and I was happy with how we held them off until the end.”
In the mixed PR3 double sculls, Sam Murray and Annie Caddick soared to gold by over a second in a time of seven minutes, 55.26 seconds.
The medal marked the duo’s first-ever piece of championship silverware but Murray revealed that there’s still more to come for the pair as they set their sights on a maiden Paralympic Games.
“We’re still working really hard and we know that we haven’t hit our ceiling yet,” he said.
“We want to keep improving as we move to the summer. We know there’s more there.
“I don’t think we knew we had it in the bag but we expected people to go out hard as of the heat.”
Elsewhere, Benjamin Pritchard clinched bronze in the PR1 single sculls behind Ukraine and Italy while Olivia Bates and Imogen Grant finished a narrow fourth in the lightweight women’s sculls.
The Olympic Games will return with Paris 2024, live on Eurosport and discovery+, the Eurosport app and at eurosport.com
