British rowing bounces back with four golds in European Championships

Glorious history placed a weighty burden on the shoulders of the UK’s rowers at the Tokyo Olympics. A measly return of one silver and bronze was as good as sinking without a trace. Tough questions were asked, and a refit undertaken. Four golds on a single sunny morning at the European Championships in Munich on Saturday provided a potent, if still incomplete, answer to whether the ship has been rapidly righted.

For Louise Kingsley, British Rowing’s new performance director, cycling along the river bank for a close inspection as the regatta resounded to her squad’s victories, this is a promising foundation in the rebuild. There were enough fourth places in Japan that marginal gains might be transformative.

Triumphs in rapid succession in the women’s fours and quadruple sculls and the men’s fours and eights suggested promotion from within for the former coach has nudged the sport forward.

“There’s more structure,” said Rebecca Shorten, among a fours crew also made up of Heidi Long, Sam Redgrave and Rowan McKellar that extracted a modest revenge by holding off Ireland, almost 12 months after supremacy was reversed in a narrow chase for Olympic bronze.

“We’ve got a lot more people in place. Whereas in the year before the Olympics, it was a lot of people stepping in. It’s just nice to have someone that’s got a goal. There’s one shot, one commitment. That’s been really good. Everyone’s really bought into it.”

A string of second bests were inflicted upon the Netherlands. The women’s quad sculls pack of Jess Leyden, Lola Anderson, Georgina Brayshaw and Lucy Glover were brutally dominant, clear of the Dutch by more than three seconds. Four seconds was the margin of victory for the men’s eights while the fours won by two seconds,