One final event, one final race. Rhine-Ruhr 2025 may of been coming to a close but GB Students men’s eights were about to set off to etch their name in the history books. They would have just seen the GB Students women’s eights go before them and win gold so now it was over to them to make sure they could join in on the celebration.
GB Students men’s eights boat was made up of Edward Ridley (Newcastle University), Maximilian Mills (Oxford Brookes), Finn Mosedale (Oxford Brookes), Benedict Newton (Oxford Brookes), Benjamin Brockway (Newcastle University), Lucas Bowes (Newcastle University), Sam Ford (University of Washington), Josh Burke (University of London) and Zahir Ala (Imperial College London).
A false start from another boar on the first time of trying would not of helped the nerves as all the boats had to reset and wait for the starting buzzer again. Second time round and all boats got off cleanly with the Dutch leading an early charge. 500m in and GB trailed by just 0.11 of a second hot on the stern of the boat ahead of them, by the half way mark GB Students took the race into their own hands taking the lead and building up a 2.15 second lead.
A lead that was increased on ever so slightly going into the 1500m mark as they crossed the marker 2.33seconds ahead of Poland. The boys could already feel the gold medals around their necks as they headed towards the line, increasing the lead every stroke they took.
As they crossed the line the GB Students crowd erupted and the boys in the boat elated slapped the water in celebration. The men’s eights crossed the line to win gold 2.29 seconds ahead of Poland.
Post race and with a gold medal around his neck the Samual Ford said on his journey to gold, “We started training together three weeks ago. We joined up from multiple different universities from around Great Britain, and merging those programmes together over those three weeks has been challenging, but also really rewarding.”
“Fundamentally, especially when you have a project like this, it’s all about removing the ego and admitting that actually we don’t really know anything, and allowing the coach to mould how we rowed. If we all came in here with arrogance, we’d be like, ‘oh, I know how to row’. It would never work. But to be able to strip ourselves of that and mould us, I was like Play-Doh, is a really positive thing.”
Zahir Ala added “I think sometimes a disruption (at the start) can just put a smile on your face, and I think we dealt with it really well. By the time we started the race, I was at full confidence that we could win.”
“We came together the first time about three weeks ago, so it’s been quite a short project, but it’s been really enjoyable. Sometimes in these projects it can be very difficult to get the guys onto the same page, but I’ve been really impressed how quickly everyone’s gelled together.”
“When we’re rowing, it looks like a crew that’s been together for a couple of months. It means a lot. Anytime you get to represent your country, it’s the greatest possible feeling as an athlete, and to be able to do it on this stage, representing my university, my club, it is really special.”
“And with such a high level of competition to be able to win, just gives you confidence of what you’re doing is good, and that you can keep going forward in the future.”
“I don’t know what the secret is, I think we just do the basics really well. All our coaches are incredible and the support team is great. And it’s a really good squad vibe, and I really liked being able to see everyone else succeed as well today.”
