Knutsford rower Ric Egington wins World Cup medal (From Knutsford Guardian)

Knutsford rower Ric Egington wins World Cup medal

10:43am Monday 22nd June 2009

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RIC Egington picked up his second World Cup medal of the summer in Munich on Sunday, but it was not the colour he wanted.

The Knutsford born ace, an Olympic silver medallist in Beijing last summer, was part Great Britain’s men’s four beaten in to third place behind two German crews.

"We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he admitted afterwards.

“But at least we’ve identified what we need to improve and for me that’s a very positive thing to take out of this race.”

For some time it seemed as if the foursome, a new crew for the current campaign, might split the two host boats and take silver.

But they could not counter the Germans’ fast finish, during which the second-ranked home boat beat the first to gold.

Egington and co, including fellow mid Cheshire rower and Beijing medallist Matt Langridge, moved up from sixth at the 500m to take third place by halfway of the 2,000m race.

“It was very disappointing we didn’t get a great start or get into a good rhythm,” said stroke Langridge.

“It meant we were always chasing the race, but we got it together in the second part but it wasn't enough.”

The quartet cruised to victory in Saturday’s semi final, where they edged out Slovenia and Belarus, ironically setting a time that would have won them a second World Cup gold of the season had they repeated it the following day.

Another member of the eight from China, Alex Partridge, and newcomer Alex Gregory were also in the boat.

Gregory said: "This was the first time when we've had to race full out to the line.

“We had a good second half today and I still think we are in a good position for the rest of the season.”

There were positive signs elsewhere from a team that won a gold, three silvers and four bronzes in total.

In contrast their medal tally in Banyoles first time out totalled 11, including nine golds.

“I’m not going to say we were at our best and some of our leading boats did not quite deliver,” said GB Rowing Performance Director David Tanner.

“But we have some good green shoots within the team who have the ability to step up in a season of change and growth.”

Great Britain still lead the World Cup points standings after two events, with the final event scheduled for Lucerne next month.

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World Cup
Munich, Men’s Four final: 1. Germany II 6:05.27; 2. Germany I 6:07.13; 3. Great Britain (Alex Partridge/Ric Egington/Alex Gregory/Matt Langridge) 6:07.74
Semi final: 1. Great Britain 6:05.23; Slovenia 6:07.03; 3. Belarus 6:09.31

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