Britain's rowers lay down Paris marker at 'fantastic' World Championships
BySportsbeat
Updated 20/03/2024 at 15:32 GMT
Six golds made up an overall tally of nine medals for the British rowing squad in Belgrade. "It has been a fantastic weekend," British Rowing performance director Louise Kingsley said. "Last year's World Championships were exceptionally good but we left those thinking 2022 was a slightly unusual year, being a year one combined with year two post-Tokyo."
Emily Craig and Imogen Grant react at the end of in the women's lightweight double sculls semi-final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Image credit: Getty Images
Britain's rowers delivered an emphatic statement of Paris intent with six World Championship golds in Belgrade.
The men's eight provided a fitting finale by retaining their crown in the last race of a regatta which ended with nine medals in all, while nine Olympic and four Paralympic quota places were secured.
Britain finished top of the World Championship medal table 12 months ago, and though they were unable to do so here, pipped by a Netherlands squad who claimed more silver medals, their performances left British Rowing performance director Louise Kingsley with plenty of optimism ahead of a defining year.
"It has been a fantastic weekend," she said.
"Last year's World Championships were exceptionally good but we left those thinking 2022 was a slightly unusual year, being a year one combined with year two post-Tokyo.
"This year, we came into the Championships with the world order a bit more back to normality and more competition.
"To produce the medals we did in the way we produced them is therefore very positive.
"Getting those [Olympic and Paralympic] slots is huge. We've qualified really well and we haven't just scraped into those spots, we are hunting medal spots in most of them. That will be really motivating for the squad over the winter.
"We are in a really good place. There are definitely areas to work on but we are really looking forward to Paris."
The gold rush began on Saturday, with Britain's five triumphs including a first World Championship gold in the women's quad sculls for 13 years and successful defences of world titles for the men's four and women's lightweight double scullers Emily Craig and Imogen Grant.
One more triumph arrived on Sunday as Jacob Dawson, Morgan Bolding, Rory Gibbs, Sholto Carnegie, Charles Elwes, Thomas Digby, James Rudkin, Tom Ford and coxswain Harry Brightmore shone in the men's eight.
The European champions were edged out by Australia in a recent World Cup regatta in Lucerne but turned the tables in Belgrade with a dominant display which saw them lead home Netherlands by more than a second, with Australia back in third.
Four of the crew were part of the eight who earned bronze in Tokyo and one of the new faces, Rory Gibbs, was delighted to end a gruelling summer on a high.
"We learned a lot from the last World Cup," he said. "There are a lot of races in a season and we were wilting a couple of months ago but we have really pulled our socks up in the last few weeks.
"We had a process, we had a race plan and we really executed that.
"The job is not quite done, we have the Olympics next year, but for now we will celebrate this win and build towards next season."
The women's eight narrowly missed a podium place, finishing fourth, enough to book the boat an Olympic berth.
Two members of the crew, Esme Booth and Emily Ford, made history as the first British women to secure two Olympic quota places in one regatta, having also done so in the pair.
It was not all plain sailing in Belgrade for the British crews, with the women's single and double scullers among those to remain unqualified for Paris, but Kingsley believes the foundations are in place for a summer to savour in 2024.
"The first thing is looking at crews and what they need to work on to be in the medal zone," she added.
"Developing our qualified boats is step one and when we're happy we have those in place, any boats we are looking at for qualification next year will have to be exceptional.
"We want the fastest combinations on the start line in Paris and many things can happen over a winter training.
"It has been a long season so we will step back and refresh before coming back in October to get ready for Paris."
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