Double delight as Leander rower wins World University Games gold

LEANDER Club’s Phoebe Snowden picked up two gold medals at the FISU World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, last weekend.

Snowden secured gold in the women’s eights and coxless four as Great Britain topped the medals table with five medals — three golds, one silver and a bronze.

It was a confident gold medal win for the women’s four of Snowden along with Sarah Marshall, Zoe McCutcheon and Holly Youd. The four led from the start to take the win more than three seconds ahead of Germany.

Coached by Alex Leigh, the four barely had time to recover, as they quickly joined Daisy Faithfull, Sophia Issberner, Tia Lenihan, Daisy Jackson and Beatrice Argyle to race the women’s eight. They attacked the final, leading from the off to take the win ahead of the Netherlands.

GB’s other medals saw the men’s eight — who included former Shiplake College leaver Ben Brockway — win gold, men’s singles sculler Josh Knight take silver and men’s pair secure bronze. Elsewhere, Leander’s Lauren Carey with Angharad Broughton finished fifth in the final of the women’s coxless pairs.

Speaking after the event, lead Great Britain coach Dan Harris said: “It’s been a great day here in Germany with the whole team making A finals and finishing fifth or higher. It’s an awesome achievement, especially in a field of multiple Olympians and senior internationals. To top the medal table and see 21 athletes come home with medals shows the strength and depth of the team, the GB Rowing development pathway and of university rowing in this country.”

The World University Games is one of the biggest sporting events in the world with more than 10,000 students from 150 countries competing at a multi-sport games across the Rhine-Ruhr Valley.