18 April 11: Leander’s Anna Watkins beat fellow world champion Katherine Grainger for the second time this season in women’s single sculls at the final leg of GB trials this weekend. And in the men’s pairs event Leander’s Pete Reed and his Molesey partner Andy Triggs Hodge exerted their customary superiority ahead of another Leander/Molesey combination – Alex Gregory and Tom James.
Flat water and clear skies greeted the best of Britain’s rowers for the event, staged at Eton Dorney, the venue for next year’s Olympic regatta, where a record 50 Leander athletes were looking to impress the selectors in advance of the 2011 international season.
Anna Watkins, who partnered Grainger in the double sculls at last year’s world championships, says that she has learnt a lot from racing in the double, especially how to get a smooth and powerful start.
In Sunday’s final she put that into practice to take an early lead in what was always going to prove a two-horse race. Approaching 1000m Grainger powered up to move into her own lead of two-thirds of a length until, with 500m to go, Watkins hit back with pace and power to surge into the lead and win by two and a half seconds. Leander’s Annie Vernon, world champion in last year’s GB women’s quad, pulled into fifth place in the final, just 0.02 sec ahead of her clubmate Vicky Thornley.
“It was a really hard race, and really close the whole way down the course – I only managed to get the advantage in the last 20-30 strokes” said Watkins afterwards.
Peter Reed and Andy Triggs Hodge won the men's pairs yet again, coming from behind to beat Tom James and Alex Gregory in a thrilling final. The world silver medallists sat in the pack for much of the first half and allowed Gregory and James to lead the race, but picked up the pace at 1250m to claw back the margin before drawing level and taking a half-length lead and going on to win.
Pete Reed announced he is looking forward to racing the New Zealanders, despite the fact the Kiwis have won their last nine encounters.
“Our final last year definitely wasn’t a walk-over – we made life very hard for them. I know we’ve got more speed to come and right now we’re in a very strong position” he said.
Leander’s Matt Wells, world silver medallist in men’s double sculls, gave favourite Alan Campbell a run for his money in men's singles. Campbell eased into a two-thirds length lead by 750m before going out to a full length margin at halfway. Down the line Wells maintained the pressure but Campbell countered the challenge and went onto win by just over a second. In third place was Sam Townsend, from the 2010 men's quad, with Leander’s Tom Solesbury in fourth.
In the final of the lightweight men’s singles London’s Rob Williams, world champion in lightweight men’s fours, split Olympic champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase. The Marlow man sculled strongly to take a clear win with Williams taking second place and Hunter slipping to fourth.
But unlike many other sports rowing trials are not the final criteria – all athletes now face extended seat racing at Caversham before the crew announcement for the first World Cup regatta of the season, to be held in Munich at the end of May.
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