World Championships, Munich
Sunday’s racing at Munich brought an early birthday present for Tash Howard in the form of a bronze medal in the women’s eights. A superb race saw the Brits take the third podium place behind the USA and Romania, and a split-second clear of Australia. Tash is quoted on the FISA website: ‘It is incredible. This year has been really great. I am very happy that we qualified for the Olympics.’
Alan Campbell finished fourth out of a very competitive field in the men’s single sculls, improving from sixth place at Dorney last year, while Mahe Drysdale completed a hat-trick of world titles in the same event.
In the men’s lightweight singles, Alasdair Leighton-Crawford won the B final, finishing seventh overall, while Rodrigo Ideus, racing for Colombia, finished nineteenth and former TSS member Tim Colson (Canada) was ninth. Past club captain Rod Chisholm, racing for Australia, won the B final of the lightweight men’s four and secured the boat’s Olympic qualification.
Kaarin Scanlan, also of Colombia, took twenty-first place from a large entry in the women’s lightweight single sculls and her compatriot Melissa Shokoufandeh – who trained at TSS in the run-up to Munich – was twenty-eighth in the Olympic-class women’s openweight singles.
Finally, an honourable mention must go to James Clarke, son of Dickie Clarke, for bringing home a gold medal in the lightweight men’s four.
The Editor