Cassells picks up a silver at the World U23 event in Italy

Joel Cassells’ excellent summer continued at the weekend as he picked up a silver at the World U23 Rowing Championships at Lake Varese in Italy.
Joel CassellsJoel Cassells
Joel Cassells

The next big star to roll off the Bann Rowing Club production line helped Great Britain’s lightweight men’s four to silver at the showpiece event for Under-23s event.

The GB four won their repechage race on Friday to progress through to today’s final, where they held the silver medal position from 1000m onwards and stayed in the mix for a gold just behind Spain’s four.

It was clear from the start that Spain were very fast, but GB did a magnificent job in holding off the home nation’s four, of whom three members of the crew won a gold medal at last year’s U23 Championships.

The GB four of Cassells, amie Copus, Iain Mandale and Tim Richards finished in 6:04.75.

All four men spoke after the race, with Joel Cassells saying: “We aimed to track the Spanish in the middle ‘k’ and did that.

“It was great how we held off Italy, the 2013 Champions, to take silver,” added Cassells.

GB Lead U23 Coach Peter said commented on the Championships afterwards, saying: “There were three excellent medals today to add to yesterday’s silver. We had really consistent performances across so many boats”.

He added: “It has been a great team to work with. Great credit must also go to the coaches and the team support staff, and of course the rowers themselves.”