Quad scullers catch crab en route to European Championship rowing final

Harry Leask and Britain's quadruple scullers recovered from catching a rare rowing 'crab' to miraculously claw their way into the European Championship final. The Edinburgh star, 26, finished third in his semi-final alongside George Bourne, Matt Haywood and Tom Barras after being forced to battle through a highly unusual incident where a rower is unable to extract the blade from the water due to the speed the boat is travelling. Ad Haywood encountered the problem at the beginning of the contest to derail their early progress but the resilient quartet ploughed on to grab the final qualification spot and book their place in the A Final.

RowingPara rower Pritchard looking to make small margins count at European Championships10 MINUTES AGO The British boat beat the Netherlands, Lithuania and Ukraine to progress to Saturday's showpiece and Leask reckons dealing with shock scenario can boost their medal hopes. The Scot, whose crew finished behind Poland and Romania, said: «Obviously in an ideal scenario, we wouldn't have caught a crab. »But it was a really good experience these things can happen on any stage anywhere and the level of competition.

«We had to deal with that and get straight back to what we know. »The way we worked our way back through the field was really good and should give us massive confidence. «We've now got our place in the A Final, it's all to play for and we just really need to back ourselves going into tomorrow.