27 October 2011: Leander’s Anna Watkins added yet another trophy to her collection when she retained the Wingfield Sculls for the Amateur Championship of the Thames in London.
Anna, who became world champion in womens double sculls two months ago in Slovenia, when she was partnered by Katherine Grainger, dominated her race from start to finish. The withdrawal of Ro Bradbury from the competition due to injury left Anna to race Gloucester’s Beth Rodford, a world champion last year in the GB women’s quad scull. Competing in fine conditons over the 4 ¼ kile course form Putney to Mortlake Anna quickly established the lead and looked confident and relaxed as she extended her margin down the course.
Her finishing time was a massive 58 seconds inside the previous record established four years ago by Olympic medallist Elise Laverick, who umpired this year’s race!
But it wasn’t such a fortunate result for Leander’s Tom Solesbury who finished second in the men’s race just half an hour later. The withdrawal of leading GB sculler Alan Campbell with shoulder injury left the field wide open between Henry Pelly of Cambridge University, lightweight Adam Freeman-Pask of Imperial College, and Solesbury, a member of the GB men’s quad scull.
The Leander man had difficulty with choppy conditions off the start but was right back in the mix at the Mile, where steering problems left Pelly out in the cold. Solesbury and Freman-Pask went neck-and-neck for Hammersmith before the IC lightweight began to draw away, to cross the line in first place and beat the men’s record in the process.
The prizes were later presented by David Wootton, himself a Leander member, who will next week be sworn in as the next Lord Mayor of London.
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