NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

NOTTINGHAM

15-17 JULY 2005

The National Championships website, including the full draw and daily results is available here

17 July: Silver for the lightweight pair and bronze for the coxed four was the Leander medal tally at the end of the final day of racing in Nottingham. The course remained calm throughout the day and large crowds turned out to support the crews in the warm sunshine.

Pride of place among the Leander squad went to Will Suthers and Andy Dax, whose battle with Miles and Bates of Nottingham & Union in the final of the lightweight pairs proved one of the closest finishes of the day. Suthers and Dax steamed into the lead, just as they did in yesterday's heat, and at the 500m signal they were just 0.3 sec up on the Nottingham & Union pair, Miles and Bates, who lost their first round heat of the Silver Goblets to Josh and Kieran West at Henley two weeks ago. The Leander pair consolidated their lead at halfway, where the margin was more than two seconds, and with 500m to go they had an apparently insurmountable lead of 3.7 secs. But Miles and Bates weren't out of the race yet - as they raised the rate and the power they came back in a photofinish on the line to take the verdict and the gold medal just 0.2 sec ahead of Leander.

In the final of the men's coxed fours it was Molesey and the IC/Tideway Scullers composite who were always going to be the main threat. Molesey led the way home with IC/TSS close on their heels and Leander third with 500m to go. As Molesey and IC/TSS fought their own private battle in the lead Leander slipped off the pace, as Molesey took gold by 1.47 secs ahead of IC/TSS with Leander a further 2.65 secs adrift in third place.

After having to qualify for the final via their repechage yesterday a medal for the Griffiths brothers in the lightweight double scull was always going to be a tall order, and so it proved. Third to the 500m mark behind Glasgow University and Upper Thames they were still in fourth place at halfway before the race pace got the better of them. Glasgow took the gold with a two second margin over Upper Thames, third were Royal Chester, and the Griffiths brothers finished sixth.

Earlier in the day Richard Blagrove was eliminated from the competition after finishing fifth in his semifinal of the single sculls. The winner of his semifinal was Charlie Palmer of Cantabrigian, who lost the final of the Diamonds to Wyatt Allen two weeks ago at Henley but went on to become national champion by winning the Nottingham final later in the day.

Reports by Leander press officer Robert Treharne Jones

16 July: The Griffiths brothers opened the Leander account at the Nat. Champs today, when they were squeezed out of their heat, in which they finished third after a battle for second with Warrington RC, while Chris and Johnny Logan of Glasgow University won the race by a distance. However the Leander/Henley composite then won their repechage to take their place in tomorrow's final.

Next up were the coxed four who needed to win their heat to qualify direct for the final. UL and Furnivall gave them a fight to the halfway mark before Leander turned on the pressure and moved away from the pack to win their heat.

Even more impressive were Will Suthers and Andy Dax in the lightweight pair - they raced their way to the 500m mark where they already had an eight second lead, but then cruised the rest of the way down the 2000m course, allowing the pack to close and taking a two second verdict on the line.

After Tommy Burton and Ben Lewis withdrew from the men's pairs, the final Leander crew in today's racing was Richard Blagrove in the single - he came from behind with 500m to go, coming past the Rob Roy sculler to win his heat and take his place in tomorrow's semi-finals.

15 July: The club athletes at Leander have been completely reshuffled following their competition in the Ladies Plate, the Brit and the Wyfolds at Henley, so five new men's crews are travelling to Nottingham this weekend to contest the coxed fours, the pairs, the singles and the lightweight men's pairs.

The double scull in which Tom Wilkinson was due to take part with Nick Clark has had to scratch, following Tom's selection for the GB coxed four which will travel to Amsterdam for the Under-23 World Championships which start on 21 July.

The new Leander coxed four includes three members of our Ladies Plate crew plus Nick Lloyd, and is coxed by Steph Richards and coached by Chris Collerton. Ben Lewis and Tom Burton, who started the season in fine form as part of the eight which went Head on the Tideway back in March, are now in the pair. Richard Blagrove, who only joined Leander in October after making the switch from athletics, is in a single scull and coached by Brian Armstrong. The line-up is completed by Andy Dax and Will Suthers from the Wyfold four, who will contest the lightweight pairs, and by Rob Griffiths and his twin brother who have formed a Leander/Henley composite in the lightweight doubles.

LEANDER ENTRY LIST

Men's coxed four

(Next race: Sunday 14.18)

Nick Lloyd

Serryth Colbert

Piotr Biedrzycki

Dan Marriott

Steph Richards

Men's pair

(Withdrawn)

Ben Lewis

Tom Burton

Men's single scull

(Next race: Sunday 10.55)

Richard Blagrove

Men's lightweight pair

(Next race: Sunday 14.24)

Will Suthers

Andy Dax

Men's lightweight double sculls

(Next race: Sunday 14.12)

Rob Griffiths

Matt Griffiths (Henley RC)

ENDS