Two National Golds

On Sunday 28^th June, Emily Downing competed in the British Rowing Virtual Championships. She was lined up against a few familiar stars from other clubs but was hopeful of medal-winning in both her events. In her first final, the 4 minute race, ‘How many metres in 4 minutes?’ Emily, who has been working on her power, leapt ahead of the field and took an early lead. She settled into a powerful rhythm and maintained a good lead throughout the piece. With 30 seconds left the girl in second place made a spirited attack and pushed for end, but Emily had plenty of scope to up her rating and hold off the challenge, coming in eight metres ahead of her nearest rival.

Having had a pretty hard race, she faced a new field in the 500m sprint later in the day. A rower from Tyne Rowing club who had not competed earlier had a blistering start for the 500m, and led Emily by a around 5m, at the half way mark. Both rowers were moving gradually away from the field but Emily was very slowly closing the gap on the leader. With 20m still to go Emily was still in second, although a dead heat might be possible: just as they crossed the line Emily pushed in front to take Gold by 0.4 seconds.

Heartfelt congratulations to Emily for adding two more National Golds to her already substantial collection.