University rowers scooped up two gold and two bronze medals to propel Team Newcastle to an overall fourth place at the 2014 European Universities Games.

The women’s coxed eight and the men’s coxless fours claimed gold medals, while the women’s coxless pairs and coxless fours took bronze to cement Team Newcastle at the top amongst 180 European universities.

The women’s eight claimed the first gold medals of the final day races with a finish time of 6:31.89. Helen O'Riordan, Emily Ford, Natalie Hardy, Katherine Bulmer, Grace Hockenhull, Rosie Rust, Gemma Hall, Nicole Lamb and Emma Ward were in the winning squad. Delft University of Technology, Holland came second almost four seconds behind Newcastle’s boat. University of Zurich, Switzerland finished third with 06:47.16. 

The women’s coxless pair event was the second final of the day to feature Newcastle University rowers. It saw Nicole Lamb and Emily Ford cruise to the finish line in 07:46.47, behind the University of Lucerne, Switzerland and the University of Bremen, Germany. The Swiss crew won the event with 07:43.13.

Next was the women’s coxless fours race for the medals. Gemma Hall, Rosie Rust, Natalie Hardy and Grace Hockenhull won the bronze medals with 07:02.53, over seven seconds behind the winners Delft University of Technology.

Following the ladies’ finals, the men’s coxless fours took the centre stage. Newcastle’s boat won the final with a time of 06:07.29. Tom Ford, James Rudkin, Florian Reinecke and Jasper Holst defeated the Tilburg University, Holland and the Dresden University of Technology, Germany crews by a winning margin of 5.54 and 9.14 seconds respectively.

In the fifth and final race involving Newcastle University crew, the men’s coxed eight finished fourth narrowly missing a fifth medal for Team Newcastle.

Fraser Kennedy, Performance Sport Manager at Newcastle University, said: “This is another amazing achievement by Newcastle University’s rowers and coaches. It is testament to all the hard work everyone puts in throughout the year.

“It is great to see local rowers achieving such success as well, including Katherine Bulmer who was part of the gold medal winning eight, coming from athletics (Shot Putt) and having never rowed before joining Newcastle University Boat Club.”

The 2nd European Universities Games are taking place in Rotterdam, Holland. The event includes competitions in 10 sports, bringing together over 2900 participants from 35 countries, representing over 180 universities in Europe.

The four-medal haul comes in the wake of the Henley Royal Regatta success, where the University’s men’s coxed four crew won the Prince Albert Challenge Cup after beating Harvard University by over three lengths in the final. 

Photo: Women's eight receiving gold medals. Courtesy of EU Games 2014.

published on: 8 August 2014