News

Posted: September 6, 2013

A year ago Polly Swann was reflecting on what could have been after injury robbed her of a chance of making the women’s eight for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Just over 12 months later and the former George Heriot’s School pupil and Edinburgh University student is sitting on top of the world after victory in the women’s coxless pair at the World Rowing Championships in South Korea.

Swann’s performance was the highlight of a successful outing for Scotland’s rowers, racing as part of the GB Rowing Team on Lake Tangeum in Chungju. All 5 Scottish athletes in the team qualified for their respective A finals which resulted in fine gold and bronze medals.

Racing with Helen Glover, Edinburgh’s Swann was making her senior debut at a World Championships. Glover, of course, had competed at this level before in New Zealand (2010) and in Bled (2011) taking silver both times before going on to win gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games with Lossiemouth’s Heather Stanning, who is currently taking a break from the sport to resume her career with the British Army.

Off the start Swann and Glover got the best first 100m of the field and as the crews settled into their race pace, the Americans were their nearest challengers . By the 500m mark the USA had got their noses in front with the British responding to take the lead once more.

Behind the USA the Romanians were a length adrift. Glover and Swann extended their lead and looked comfortable despite the hot and slightly breezy conditions. They moved out to over a length on the Americans creating the perfect conditions from which to control the second half.

The British boat kept up the pace relentlessly and Romania began a late surge to move past the Americans and take up the chase with New Zealand. British supporters tensed. They need not have worried. Glover and Swann found another gear to win in 7:22.82.

Swann put her head in her hands as she crossed the line. Afterwards she explained: "I really couldn't quite believe it. It feels fantastic to be world champions. You just have to believe in yourself. I think we raced that pretty well and put in a few good pushes when it mattered."

The GB Rowing Team lightweight men's pair featuring former Strathclyde University and Glasgow Rowing Club oarsman Sam Scrimgeour alongside Mark Aldred recorded an impressive bronze medal, all the more impressive when you realise that like Swann, the British pair were both making their debuts at this level.

Italy led early with the Swiss not far behind and GB back in fourth before moving back up in into third place in time for the final attack. By then the Swiss looked and then proved to be untouchable but GB sensed they might close the gap on Italy only for their experienced duo to quicken and secure silver.

"It was tight and I thought we were going to go through them," said Scrimgeour.

Inverness’ Imogen Walsh and her partner Kathryn Twyman kept in medal contention in their lightweight women's double final for the early part of the race and, with 500m to go, looked as if they might challenge for the podium before falling back as the top three crews upped the rate in the chase to the line.

Italy, second at 500m, came through to win in 7:17.31 with the USA in silver and Germany in bronze. GB took fourth in 7:24.54.

"We are still at the stage that we are analysing the race and how it went,' said Walsh. "We have moved on further as a crew than probably we ever thought we would do. But whether I think that race was our absolute best, I am still figuring that out."

Vicky Meyer-Laker from Premnay, Aberdeenshire, was partnered with twice Olympic silver medallist Frances Houghton in the women's double scull, the boat made famous by fellow Scot Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins who took gold at last year’s Olympic Games.

This season's incumbents were bronze medallists at the season opening world cup in Australia before taking gold at Eton-Dorney.

In Korea the duo got a solid start behind Lithuania who were leading at 250m gone. Lithuania, GB and New Zealand had a third of a length over the remainder of the field. Meyer-Laker and Houghton came up level with Lithuania a third of the way into the race but New Zealand were also looking threatening.

By the halfway stage the Antipdoeans just had their nose in front with Lithuania in second and GB third. Belarus was still in contention in lane one as were the Germans in lane five.

Lithuania put in a blistering 10 strokes to move away just after the halfway mark and the Kiwis responded leaving GB behind. As the pace increased the leaders surged away and the British boat was left to try and hold off the finish of the Belarussians. Ultimately, they could not find the speed and were fourth in 6:58.67.

Said Meyer-Laker: “It is my first world champs so being in the A final was really great. It was a chance to put the cards on the table and see what we could do. I wanted to really lay it down as we have moved on since Lucerne. We were right up there in the first half and I don't really know when we started to drop back because I was focussed on us. It is really disappointing to be close to the medals and not quite get there but we've had a great season and I have really enjoyed the experience of rowing with Fran.”

Alan Sinclair of Inverness featured in the GB men's four, stroked by Mat Tarrant, and featuring Scott Durant and Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell who made a decent start to their final and who were in the mix throughout the first quarter of the race. In the second quarter they fell slightly off the pace and then came back strongly on the inside lane but could not quite catch the leading boats to finish fifth in 6:22.71.

Commenting on the performances, Scottish Rowing’s High Performance Co-Ordinator Lee Boucher was full of pride: “The World Championships is the pinnacle of the season for every rowing nation, so seeing all 5 GB boats featuring Scottish athletes reaching A finals demonstrates the level at which these athletes are operating at. Of course, Polly’s gold and Sam’s bronze medals are just the icing on the cake.”

Hoping to follow in Swann’s footsteps will be students from the University of Edinburgh and Robert Gordon University who are set to compete at the 8th European Universities Rowing Championships which are being held in Poznan, Poland, from 5th – 8th September 2013. Georgina Grandfield and Jo Smith from the University of Edinburgh will be aiming to emulate Swann, who raced in the women’s coxless pair at the same event in 2009, winning gold on that occasion by an impressive margin of eight seconds.

Christie Duff and Iona Riley (women’s double scull) and Lewis McCue (men’s single) from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University University will also be representing GB Universities, with Riley and McCue having already represented GB earlier this season at the World Under 23 Championships in Linz, Austria.

Coaches John Higson (University of Edinburgh) and Mike Hughes (University Rowing Aberdeen) have also been selected to the team.