# ROWING: Peter Chambers won the battle of the brothers in the British rowing trials at Caversham. He beat his elder brother, Richard, in the lightweight single sculls final. He led early in the race and kept the chasing crews at bay through the second half.
Richard was in that chasing pack as was last year’s champion Adam Freeman-Pask. At 1400 metres it looked as if the battle between Freeman-Pask and Richard Chambers might assist the duo in closing the gap on the leader only for the younger Chambers sibling to edge out further in front.
“I found it especially difficult that the event was at Caversham,” said Peter Chambers, who clocked six minutes 58.12 seconds for the 2,000 metres. “It’s where we train everyday. I needed to psyche myself up more. Once I was in the mind-set it became a lot easier.”
Peter Chambers was one of the Ireland team’s top junior athletes before he moved to Britain. He and crewmate Peter Hanily won gold at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, the European junior rowing tournament, at the National Rowing Centre in Cork in 2008.
Alan Campbell was gracious in defeat to Charles Cousins in the men’s single sculls’ final in which many thought that the seasoned international and Henley winner Peter Lambert might be the main challenger.
Campbell led for three-quarters of the race. He looked well placed in the final quarter to unleash his trademark sprint but had clearly used up more energy than apparent in keeping ahead of Lambert and Matt Langridge who once again had a storming first 900m as in yesterday’s semi-finals.
Campbell, in the centre, was ideally placed to see Lambert and Langridge but was perhaps unaware in the dying stages just how quickly Cousins was coming up on the outside with Graeme Thomas coming into the top four in those closing stages, too.
It looked as if Campbell might hold on until the final 100 metres when Cousins just kept applying the pressure to come through and win in 6:51.49.
“I’m really pleased for Charles,” said Campbell afterwards. “I felt that I gave a good account of myself especially after a bit of time away and training away from the squad. Tactically, I feel that I went too early and I went with Peter Lambert. It was a question of tactics rather than anything else. I’ll live to fight another day.”
British Trials, Caversham (Selected Results)
Men
Single sculls: 1. Charles Cousins (Leander) 6:51.49, 2. Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers’) 6:53.44, 3. Peter Lambert (Leander) 6:53.52, 4. Graeme Thomas (Agecroft) 6:54.32, 5. Sam Townsend (Reading Uni) 6:59.58, 6. Matt Langridge (Leander) 7:02.85.
Lightweight Single: 1. Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes) 6:58.12, 2. Adam Freeman-Pask (Reading Univ) 7:01.18, 3. Richard Chambers (Leander) 7:02.37, 4. William Fletcher (Leander) 7:04.39, 5. Jamie Kirkwood (Leander) 7:08.10, 6. Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College) 7;09.01.
