Rowing foursome finish sixth

Johannesburg - South Africa's lightweight men’s fours finished sixth in the final of their event at the World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea, on Sunday.

The foursome, who took gold in London last year, were competing without Matthew Brittain, who had suffered a back injury and was taking a year out of rowing.

His replacement, Michael Voerman, combined with Olympic winners James Thompson, John Smith and Sizwe Ndlovu to finish in six minutes 11.99 seconds (6:11.99) in the race won by Denmark in 5:55.68. New Zealand (5:57.28) came second ahead of Great Britain (5:59.98) in third.

Olympians Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Perse also ended sixth in their final, timed at 7:39.26 in a race won by Britain in 7:22.82.

The men’s pairs combination of Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain teamed up to take second in their B final, in 6:41.08, behind Britain, after overhauling Serbia in the final stages.

Kirsten McCann and Kate Johnstone came second in the B final of the lightweight women’s double skulls in 7.22.16. They edged out Sweden, who finished in 7:23.34. The race was won by the Australians in 7:19.97.

Earlier in the week, South Africa won their only medal at the championships when the LTA mixed coxed fours crew won a bronze medal in their final, clocking 3:22.90. They were beaten by Britain who took the gold in 3:16.12 and Italy, who were second in 3:21.70.

“It’s the first time for two of us to race internationally and the first time as a crew to race internationally,” said Gavin Kilpatrick.

“The final was a lot closer than we anticipated and we had to work a lot harder, but we are very, very happy with our results.”

Kilpatrick’s crew were Shannon Murray, Lucy Perold, Dieter Rosslee and Willie Morgan.

Their bronze medal was a first ever medal for South Africa in a para rowing world championship.