Bronze for Chambers as Campbell makes strong return

Richard Chambers says he is having fun in his new lightweight men’s double sculls partnership with Will Fletcher after winning a second medal in three weeks at the World Cup in Varese, Italy.

It was also a significant weekend for fellow Coleraine rower Alan Campbell, who returned from injury to make the A-Final of the men’s single scull in his first competition of 2015.

Chambers and Fletcher continued their fledgling partnership by winning bronze behind World and European champions Stany Delayer and Jeremie Azou from France, with host nation Italy taking silver.

“We have improved massively in the last two weeks and it’s been good fun”, said Chambers, who won silver with Fletcher at the European Championships in Poznan.

“Today was better than Saturday’s semi-final, a bit more of a fight. We are consistently in the running for the medals but we need to find that bit of extra speed to step up.”

Campbell, the London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, reached the final by taking third place with a strong finish to Saturday’s semis.

Drawn in lane one, he was next to his old adversary Ondrej Synek, the world’s best time holder, and one lane away from his friend and rival Mahe Drysdale, the Olympic champion.

Campbell was in a very tight pack for the first 1,000m but while the race moved away from him somewhat, he was still able to finish fifth behind Drysdale in 6:58.72 – ahead of newly-crowned European champion Damir Martin of Croatia.

Completing the Coleraine connection were Joel Cassells and Peter Chambers, who moved into the men’s four having won gold in the non-Olympic class men’s pair at the European Championships.

However, they missed out on a medal on this occasion, finishing fourth alongside Mark Aldred and Chris Bartley.

The GB Rowing Team finished the World Cup top of the medal table with five gold, a silver and four bronze.

Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: “We have had some exceptional performances and this has been another good step on our path to the Olympic qualifying regatta later in the summer.

“Well done to all our athletes and their coaches over the weekend.”

GB crews will next be in World Cup action in Lucerne, Switzerland, from July 10-12.

The full GB Rowing Team results from the Varese World Cup are available at www.gbrowingteam.org.uk