Great Britain storms ahead

The British won an incredible nine out of the 14 Olympic class races, seven of them in a row.

A total of 94 point put Great Britain a huge 56 points ahead of Italy in second. This lead, as noted by British commentator Martin Cross, would make it difficult for any country to catch up or overtake the British over the next two Rowing World Cups.

Great Britain had a squad of 50 rowers competing, the biggest squad at Banyoles, and it introduced some new combinations as well as younger rowers to the squad. Katherine Grainger, who spent the last four years in the quad, has changed to the single this season and in her final at Banyoles she won gold. Gold also went to the British in the men’s single with Alan Campbell beating Olympic Champion, Olaf Tufte of Norway who finished second.

The women’s pair, double, quad and eight were all gold medals for Great Britain. Apart from the women’s pair of Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve – sixth at the Beijing Olympics – all other line ups are new this season.

The men were also successful in securing gold. These included the men’s pair, double and four. The men’s pair and four are new line ups with the double being the same combination (Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham) that finished third at Beijing. The men’s double was one of the most exciting races with Great Britain up against some new combinations, Wells and Rowbotham received a real run for their money. At the line just 6/100ths of a second stood between Wells and Rowbotham and silver medallists, Italy.

Overall it was the silver medal British men’s quad, that finished a close second behind Olympic Champions Poland, that were touted as the British success story. High Performance Director for Great Britain, David Tanner said in the GB Rowing News press release, "This is the first complete crew from our own talent identification scheme to win a World Cup senior medal and I like the way they are doing things."

Tanner, however, was cautious about the British success, noting that a number of key rowing nations did not compete at Banyoles.

Rowing World Cup points are awarded in Olympic events only and work on a descending scale starting at eight points for a win. The top five countries following Banyoles are: 1. Great Britain (94), 2. Italy (38), 3. Poland (28), 4. France (23), 5. Canada (21).

The Rowing World Cup series now goes to Munich, Germany with racing beginning 19 June 2009.