YOG 2010: Britain claim second Youth Olympic gold in rowing pairs

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Singapore

GEORGIA Howard-Merrill and Fiona Gammond stunned themselves and their rivals as they powered to Britain's second gold at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

STORMING: Georgia Howard-Merrill and Fiona Gammond power to rowing pairs victory at the Youth Olympic Games (Singapore Press Holdings)

The duo, who were part of Great Britain's gold medal winning eight at the recent World Junior Rowing Championships, had been unconvincing during qualifying but brought it together when it mattered.

In difficult rainy conditions, they covered the 1000m course in 3.28.60 to finish nearly a second ahead of Australia's Emma Basher and Olympia Aldersey while Greece's Eleni Diamanti and Lydia Ntalamagka completed the podium.

"We're so surprised. We never expected it at all," said Howard-Merrill, whose preparations for Singapore have been aided by a £1,000 contribution from London 2012 partner Lloyds TSB's Local Heroes initiative.

"We came out of the semi-finals in such a bad state because we got the fifth-best time and nearly crashed into the Romanians. However, it all came together in the final, it's so good."

Gammond admitted the close nature of their win made it all the more special.

"We're not used to close races like that. It was so exciting to have lots more competition," she said.

"It's an amazing feeling to win at the Youth Olympics.

"We don't have to sit around thinking 'damn what if we'd won gold'. It's a really good end to the season."

However, there was disappointment for Ed Luxmoore-Nainby and Caspar Jopling, who just missed out on a medal in the men's pair.

Slovenia's Jure Grace and Grega Domanjko stunned world champions, Greece's Michalis Nastopoulos and Apostolos Lampridis, to take gold.

Australia's Matthew Cochran and David Watts then held off the British pair, who admitted their gold or bust tactics didn't pay off.

"We tired ourselves out too much in going for gold there, we missed out on a chance of getting any other medal," said Nainby-Luxmoore.

"Initially, fourth place might have exceeded our expectations, considering we've only been rowing together for five days, but we were hoping for more to be honest."

Lithuanian rower Rolandas Mascinskas put in a stunning performance to upset Germany's two-time world junior champion German Felix Bach to win the men's single sculls.

In the women's single sculls , German Judith Sievers took the gold after a strong finish saw her overtake Ukraine's Nataliia Kovalova in the last 20m. 

  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