London 2012 gold medallist Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley have reached the final of the World Rowing Cup in their re-established women’s double scull partnership. The pair failed to win places in Team GB’s women’s eight for the Rio Olympics, but are expected to be selected in the double scull.
Their cause will be helped after they reached Sunday’s final in Poznan.
They qualified today in second place from the repechages, behind New Zealand. Grainger, 40, and Thornley, 28, had led before being caught on the line by the Kiwis. ”We were much better in the first half of the race today – that’s a step-up from the heats yesterday,” said Wales’ Thornley.
“We have stuff to work on but now we can enjoy the final and see how much speed we can get out of the boat”.
Grainger and Thornley had dissolved their double scull partnership in May to focus on earning spots in the larger boat but they were not on the list of 43 names announced by Team GB on 9 June.
Should she win a medal at her fifth Games in Rio, Grainger would become Britain’s most decorated female Olympian, having also won silver medals in Sydney, Athens and Beijing.
British Rowing performance director Sir David Tanner said it was his “confident intention” to get them back into the doubles boat.
