13 April 10: Leander's Pete Reed and his Molesey partner Andy Triggs-Hodge were once again dominant in the men's pairs event at GB trials in Belgium, where they recorded their sixth win together.
In second place were Leander's Rick Egington and Matt Langridge, while their gold medal crewmates from last year's world champion four, Alex Partridge and Alex Gregory, finished fourth.
Once Reed and Hodge had moved into a comfortable lead before halfway, the battle behind them was intense, although Egington and Langridge always looked primed to win it.
"I didn't feel under pressure at all", said Reed afterwards. "We still have the motivation from last year's worlds, To execute today's race plan we had to be very confident of ourselves physically".
The British pair were silver medallists at last year's world championships behind New Zealand, who had beaten them three times earlier in the season. The towpath is now rife with speculation about the decision which chief coach Jurgen Grobler's must make, either to allow Reed and Hodge to contest the pair for a second year or to put them back in the four, the event in which they won gold in Beijing.
In the women's pairs Leander's Lou Reeve and her Agecroft partner Olivia Whitlam started as race favourites and duly won ahead of Jess Eddie and Alison Knowles. In third were Leander's Jo Cook and Wallingford's Lindsey Maguire, while fourth place wentr to Leander's Vicky Thornley and her partner Natasha Page of Reading University.
Reeve and Whitlam were Olympic finallists in Beijing, and only qualified for the Olympics at the last possible chance.
"It's a lot nicer to have everyone racing competitively", said Reeve. "We just got out and raced to plan and we got some good practice at racing to the line in our semi which gave us a marker".
Leander's Marcus Bateman gave world silver medallist Alan Campbell a brief run for his money in the men's single event after recording the fastest time of the day in Sunday's qualifying races.
But in Monday's final Campbell was determined to establish his dominance and by 1000m it was clear he would win.
Despite being led briefly by Leander's Matt Wells, Beijing Olympic bronze medallist in the double scull, the Tideway Scullers man moved away from the field. Wells finished second, ahead of Bill Lucas of Reading University, with Bateman fourth.
The women's singles was won in predictable fashion by Katherine Grainger to record her ninth win in the event ahead of Leander's Anna Watkins. But there was a surprise third place for Leander's Katie Solesbury, who transferred from sweep rowing to sculling only last year, and overhauled Olympic medallist Annie Vernon to slot in behind Watkins and Grainger.
|
