YOG 2010: Nainby-Luxmoore admits Britain are underdogs for gold

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Singapore

GREAT Britain's coxless pairs crews both advanced to their respective rowing finals at the Youth Olympic Games - but they admit there is work to do to claim a medal.

REALISTIC: Ed Luxmoore-Nainby admits Great Britain will start underdogs in their pairs final - with the gold at the mercy of Greece's Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridi, the world junior champions

Ed Luxmoore-Nainby and Caspar Jopling were second in their semi-final behind Greek favourites Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis.

But their 3.13.37 time on the 1000m course will mean they start the final as second fastest qualifiers.

Georgia Howard-Merrill and Fiona Gammond, members of the gold medal winning British eight at the recent World Junior Championships, were made to sweat for their final place.

With only three advancing from each semi-final, the teenage pair just held off a fast-finishing Belarus crew to progress by just fractions of a second.

They later claimed a steering problem upset their tempo and with races held over a short sprint distance, they only just managed to correct the problem.

"We both know what went wrong and that we can do a lot better than that," said Howard-Merrill.

"We panicked a little bit at the start because of what happened but we know why it went wrong and we are not worried or fazed by it. We know we can fix it for the final.

"It is such a difficult transition from the eight and then we are rowing over 1000m, which we haven't done since we were 14. It is hard but we are still confident."

Nainby-Luxmoore was again not satisfied with his performance - echoing the thoughts he expressed after winning in Monday's heats.

And he admits beating the world champion Greek pair won't be easy.

"We were second and we are not happy but it gets us in the final, which is where we need to be," he said.

"The semi final was definitely a step up from the heat but there is definitely more to come from us and more improvements that we can make.

"The Greeks are the World champions in the pair so they are obviously going to be tough because they have been racing in the boat for months, while we have been doing it for four days." 

  Lloyds TSB, proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and supporter of Team GB on their journey to the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympic Games. Visit LloydsTSB.com/London2012