WELSH rowers impressed at the GB 5km trials race in Boston, with Olympic 8s medallist and Cambridge Boat Race pick Ollie Wynne-Griffth winning the men’s pairs and eight top-10 finishes.
Tokyo 8s crew mate Josh Bugajski was fourth with fellow Wales rower Matt Aldridge, one place ahead of Sam Bannister, while Tokyo quads silver medallist and fellow Welsh Rowing graduate Tom Barras was third in men’s singles.
GB World Cup cap Alice Davies was also fifth in women’s pairs, with former Wales Home Countries singles champion Alice Baatz ninth.
Wynne-Griffith stormed home first in the pairs with Tokyo crew mate Tom George in 17 minutes 44 seconds, 11 seconds up on a three-way fight for second covered by just over half a second.
Cardiff University graduate Bugajski and 2021 World Cup medallist Aldridge were second on time at half-way, but the Brookes duo had to settle for fourth just 0.62secs back on Leander/Brookes pair Harry Glenister and Ollie Wilkes in second, and a mere 0.14 secs behind Broookes boat David Bewicke-Copley and Freddie Davidson in third.
Fellow Cardiff alumnus Bannister was fifth with Brookes’ Tom Digby in 18.09, with 2019 World U23 8s gold medallist Matt Rowe ninth with Boat Race Blue David Ambler in 18.16, just 0.8 secs behind Olympic 8s medallist James Rudkin and Tokyo fours finalist Matt Rossiter.
Old Monmothian U23 Robbie Prosser-Wrench with Eton College’s Theodore Bell was also 15th in the 28-boat race in 18.49.
Welsh Rowing product Barras, who stormed to world singles bronze in 2017 before landing silver with the GB quad in Tokyo last summer, came home third just six seconds behind Games crew mate Harry Leask, who headed the 28-boat field in 19.11 by 1.5secs from World U23 quad gold medallist George Bourne.
Welsh Rowing-supported Swansea University graduate Aidan Thompson came home 15th in 20.24, 3.5secs back on Matt Brigham, the 2019 Henley Royal conqueror of double Olympic singles champion Mahe Drysdale.
In the women’s 20-boat pairs time-trial, 2021 Henley Royal double medallist Alice Davies placed fifth with Leander partner Lauren Irwin in 20.56, just one second behind Tokyo Olympian Emily Ford and UL’s Sara Parfett.
Olympic fours finalists Rebecca Shorten and Rowan McKellar took the win in 20.23, with Bangor University graduate Alice Baatz ninth with Leander’s Annie Campbell-Orde in 21.17, and fellow Welsh rower Issy Powell 12th in 21.35.
