Three medals at indoor world champs

Sam Ayers and Nick Cowan training on Bassenthwaite in their double

Lakeland Rowing Club won a trio of medals at the recent World Rowing Virtual Indoor Championships.

Celia Whittam, Sam Ayers and Nick Cowan joined qualifiers from around the globe competing in real time on indoor rowing machines in homes and local gyms in the event run from Hamburg, Germany.

Celia, from Troutbeck, took silver in the women’s age 60-plus 500m category for the second year in a row, completing the distance in an impressive 1 minute 47.3 seconds, a personal best and almost 1.5 seconds faster than her 2021 time.

Celia, who works as a gardener, said: “I was keen to try and match my result from last year and knew I would have to plan my race to get into the medal position, so I aimed for a 350m steady pull, which put me in third place, then I was going to push as hard as I could to the end.

“I was so focussed on the final effort that I wasn’t aware that at 100m to go I’d moved into second place. I was very pleased with my achievement.”

Sam, an exercise professional from Eaglesfield, lost out to the world record holder, Italy’s Paola Mancini, to finish in silver with a personal best of 1 min 43.0 secs in the women’s lightweight age 50-59 500m race.                    

Entries for the various age and weight categories were restricted to just three qualifiers per continent, meaning a total of only 15 people could contest each set of medals.

Sam, who started rowing just four years ago, said: “It was amazing to be competing against such a quality field from all over the world. Some of the younger age finals were full of athletes who represent their country at Olympic and world level in on-water rowing events.

“The fact that the race was virtual actually encouraged better competition, because people were able to compete without having the expense and time commitment of travelling.”

Her on-water doubles partner, Nick, also from Eaglesfield, missed bronze in the men’s age 60-64 500m race by a tenth of a second, crossing the line in 1 min 28.8 secs.

In the weekend’s 2000m events, Sam, who owns exercise company BodyFit Cumbria, replicated her 2021 result with a bronze in the lightweight 50-54 category in 7 mins 39.8 secs. Gold went to GB’s Justine Reston, the current world-record holder, in 7 mins 26.5 secs, with Paola Mancini taking silver.

Sam added: “I was pleased with my performances and can’t be disappointed to be beaten by two world-record holders.”

In the men’s age 60-64 2000m race retired GP Nick came fifth in a very strong field in 6 mins 48.5 secs.