Stoic wins double gold at Rowing Championships
At the end of July, James Rudkin (Walpole) was selected for the Great Britain Rowing Team for the Coupe de la Jeunesse, European Junior Championships at Linz in Austria. We are delighted to hear that his quadruple sculling crew won gold medals in both the Saturday and Sunday finals.
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For James (pictured third from left), Great Britain selection, was the culmination of a year of trialling and testing and gruelling 38 seat-races over five days at the Final Trials..jpg)
A fortnight’s training camp produced a polished unit and on Saturday they set a mid-course pace that none of the other crews could match, winning by clear water over Belgium (silver medalists) and Spain (bronze medalists).After the excitement of Saturday's win, their coach Mark Wilkinson, quickly brought them down to earth as thay had another challenging race the next day.
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On Sunday their performance was even more emphatic. Blasting out from the start, they had broken clear of the field by halfway and then saw off the challenge from Italy who were determined to get into the medals. On the line, Great Britain gained another gold medal, Spain snatched silver and Italy the bronze.
James is very grateful to Michael Righton, Jonathan Peverley and Ted Bainbridge (Old Stoic) for the help they have given him to develop his sculling at Stowe. He is now aiming for the World Championships in Bulgaria in 2012 and we look forward to following his success.