North Wales’ Victoria Thornley made the top three at the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials at Caversham this weekend.
She was third in the open women’s single scull in a time of 7:36.19 behind Olympic women’s pair champion Helen Glover and twice former Olympic silver medallist Frances Houghton in the race of the day.
Glover out-gunned sculling specialist Frances Houghton in the final sprint to the line to take the women’s single title by a whisker.
Thornley, a World women’s eight bronze medallist in 2011, eased past team-mate Louisa Reeve in the second quarter of the race and held on strongly to third place behind the battling front runners.
This was a race in which Glover led early and herself held off a strong challenge from Houghton, in the final 250m of the race.
“In that final 100m I just shut my eyes and went for it as I knew that Fran has a good sprint finish”, said Glover whose margin of victory was the narrowest of the day during which all the top women and lightweights competed in single sculls whereas the top open weight men were divided between singles and men’s pairs.
It was a tough weekend though for the Welsh lightweight men’s four Olympic silver medallist Chris Bartley.
He was 12th overall in the lightweight men’s single scull and was clearly not on form even given his well-known preference for sweep oar rather than sculling boats.
Bartley’s Olympic silver crew-mate Peter Chambers beat last year’s champion Adam Freeman-Pask, who was second, and his older brother Richard Chambers, who came home third, to take the lightweight men’s single title by a comfortable margin. He led throughout.
“I knew it was going to be a tough field today especially with us being the top three in training”, said Chambers.
At the Trials overall the shock win came when Cambridge’s Charles Cousins beat Olympic bronze medallist and single scull specialist Alan Campbell.
Campbell, of Coleraine, led early and looked set to take a record, ninth successive open men’s single title before Cousins eased past him in the final 250m. The race took place at the National Training Centre, which was converted to a competition venue for the occasion.
“Let’s not get carried away, it’s only one race. I’m really happy with the win but it’s a bit of a surprise really”, said Cousins from Willingham whose landmark win came despite missing a few days training earlier in the week with a cold and cough.
By contrast Andrew Triggs Hodge, Olympic men’s four champion, and Moe Sbihi from last year’s Olympic bronze medal eight, were emphatic winners of the men’s pair ahead of their rivals and also Olympic men’s four champions Peter Reed and Alex Gregory.
“We knew in training that everything was going pretty well but you still have to do it on the day”, said Hodge. “What Moe did was superb and we worked really well together”.
Inverness’ Imogen Walsh fulfilled her status as title-favourite in the lightweight women’s single scull. She moved out to a strong lead before halfway. “At that point the ego kicks in and you feel like winning by as much as you can but today I kept telling myself not to be silly, no heroics, let’s just complete the job”.
Olympic women’s pair champion Helen Glover, from Penzance, got the verdict in the tightest race of the day. She took the open women’s single scull title after a ding-dong battle with Oxford’s Frances Houghton.
The results will provide interesting material for the Chief Coaches and Performance Director in the coming weeks as seat-racing and crew formation takes place.
“We have had some great racing today and it is very healthy to see some new blood challenging for top places in the finals”, said Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team’s Performance Director.
“We have Rio in our sights but this season will be important to lay down a base for the next three years as well as some experimentation with new boat mixes.
“Over the next few weeks we will be forming our boats for the next world cup on home waters in late June at Dorney”.
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