GB crew in World Championship action

Alan Sinclair will be looking to take another step towards winning Great Britain a medal at the 2013 World Rowing Championships when the men’s four compete in the semi-finals early tomorrow morning.

University of East London scholar Sinclair and teammates Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell, Scott Durant and Matt Tarrant will be trying to qualify for the Saturday’s final in Chungju, South Korea, having come through their heat in dramatic fashion earlier this week.

The GB crew, having won silver at the World Cup regatta at Eton earlier this year, needed a late dash to secure a top-two finish, avoiding the repechage.

Trailing in last place with 500m remaining, they sprinted towards the line and went past teams one by one to come second and finish with the third quickest time out of the 16 nations competing in the three heats.

The USA won heat two in 6:00.69 ahead of the GB four, whose impressive time of 6:02.64 was only bettered by the Netherlands in heat one.

GB’s time was even more remarkable considering the soaring temperature in Chungju, as the race took place in extremely hot conditions, when the clouds had scattered.

Having spent weeks preparing for the World Championships, Sinclair and co will now try to make their medal winning dreams a reality by qualifying for the final.