World U23 Championships

Brookes athletes claim Gold and set World Best Time’s on the International stage

In a hugely exciting week of racing, seven Brookes athletes represented Great Britain in multiple crews at the U23 World Championships being held in Varese, Italy.

After a great build up to finals, several British crews looked to be in contention for fighting alongside the world’s best competition for medals. Having narrowly won their Heat, the Men’s Coxed Four progressed straight to the A-Final. Ben Hinves and Will Denegri, recently having claimed glory in the Temple Challenge Cup earlier in July made a fast start in their Final and started to extend their lead through halfway. With some great pacing and explosive rowing in fast conditions the British crew claimed Gold and a Worlds Best Time of 6:02.90. An astonishing achievement!

Will Denegri was the 5^th Brookes cox to be continuously selected in the seat of the Coxed Four since 2016. The first of them to win Gold. This is a great show of consistency and the prowess of the Oxford Brookes program nurturing world class coxes. If you are interested in learning more about the importance of coxing at OBUBC then find to the coxing page here.

In another show of the talent at Brookes, Scott Cockle returned to the coxing seat in the Men’s Eight hoping to defend his Gold medal from last year’s World Championships. He was joined by Jake Wincomb, Matt Heywood and Jack Prior who also tasted success at Henley Royal Regatta earlier this summer. After setting one of the fastest times ever by a GB U23 crew (5:25.01) in the Heats, they progressed straight to the A-Final. In the last race of the U23 regatta, Great Britain charged out of the start in blustery conditions. Initially, there were challenges by the USA and Australia, however, GB stretch out their lead in the third 500m and went on to win by ¾ length.

Miles Devereux in the Quadruple Sculls narrowly missed out on the A-Finals in his Semi Final earlier in the week. His crew put in a great performance to claim a win in the B-Final and 7^th overall.

Some inspirational performances, by all athletes representing Brookes. We look forward to welcoming them all back to Wallingford next season. As the season nears it’s conclusion there are a few more races to come with U23 European Championships as well as the Senior team racing at the European Games and World Championships. Best of luck to them!