Jess and Hannah, in the middle with their Gold Medals.
Exeter student rowers claim Gold
The Exeter pair qualified for the September regatta by winning Gold at the British Universities and Colleges Sport event in May and this would be their last race together representing Exeter.
GB Universities fielded a strong team in all boat categories, with the University of Exeter Boat Club’s Jess and Hannah racing in the lightweight women’s double. After a strong summer of racing and training, the pair had high hopes for the regatta. Their first race was a heat, with the first boat progressing directly to the final, and the other 3 racing a repercharge on the following day. Jess and Hannah had pushed into first place by the 500m mark, and continued to extend their lead for the rest of the race, winning by 13 seconds and qualifying for the final 17 seconds ahead of the other heat’s winners.
The final took place against Portugal’s University of Porto, Poland’s Kazimierz University Bydgoszcz, The Netherlands’ Amsterdam University, and 2 crews from Germany: Leibniz University and Wurzburg University. Jess and Hannah had a strong start and were leading for the whole race, eventually winning by 10 seconds, with Poland taking silver and Portugal taking bronze. The girls were very happy to add to the gold medal they won at EUSA in 2013 as part of the Lightweight women’s quad.
Jess said: ‘We have been rowing together for 3 years now and this was our last race for Exeter, so we couldn’t be more proud to go home with a gold medal. Also, massive thanks must go out to our club mates who followed both of our races on the live stream; their support was a massive boost for us as we were preparing for the final’
Both Jess and Hannah were part of the quad that won gold in the lightweight quad at the same event in Poznan in 2013, Jess also represented GB at the U23 World Championships in 2014. Together with Rowing director and coach Richard Tinkler and assistant coach Lorna Tinkler, the duo have had a successful season in the double, with a win at the Metropolitan regatta in May followed a good performance against strong competition at Women’s Henley.
Jess added “We’ve benefitted from an excellent training programme from the strength and conditioning coaches alongside our coaching and training, as well as support from the University and alumni”.
For information about the University of Exeter Boat Club please visit their website.
For more information about this story please contact the Sports High Performance Team at the University of Exeter at sportscholarships@exeter.ac.uk or 01392 723759
Date 23 September 2015
Date: 23 September 2015
