Edwards clinches Euro silver with GB eight in Munich

REBECCA Edwards has won her first senior international medal after helping a GB rowing team claim a silver medal at the European Championships in Munich at the weekend.

The Aughnacloy woman was part of the GB women’s eight team that went toe-to-toe with the highly-fancied Romanians only to be pipped at the post in the race for gold.

For Edwards it was further reward for a season of hard training after deciding to continue competitive rowing following her participation in the Tokyo Olympics last year.

Just last month Edwards was a member of the GB eight which beat Australia to win the prestigious Remenham Challenge Cup at the Hanley Royal Regatta before being part of the GB team which took overall gold at a World Championship event in Switzerland.

She says this latest success is further vindication of her decision to continue rowing competitively.

“I had a tear in my eye as we went onto the podium because I decided to continue rowing after Tokyo as I felt I still had more to give and more to prove to myself,” she said.

“This feels like a huge step for me and I feel really proud of how much I’ve improved personally but also how much my team has progressed through the season.”

In Munich all eyes were on the women’s eight as one of the signature events and while the Romanians were favourites it was team GB which set the pace in the early part of the race.

In the end it came down a dramatic final sprint and, in front of a raucous crowd, it was the Romanians who won by a whisker..

For Edwards it was another valuable experience that she will put in the bank for use on another day.

“I’m really pleased with a silver medal. Of course we are competitors and we desperately wanted the gold but we gave everything during the race and Romania were the better boat on the day,” she continued.

“We were really excited to race the 8 because it’s a noisy event and a real crowd pleaser. The European Championships are a multisport event this year which meant we had bigger crowds than normal at the rowing lake. I remember feeling really ready to race as we were warming up.

“The time when I got most nervous was just before the starter called ‘attention’ and the buzzer went. I always feel like that before a race. I just remind myself how hard I have trained and to stay focused on the processes and that calms me.

“As soon as we took our first stroke my nerves disappeared and I felt really focused on the task at hand. I knew we were rowing well and was confident we would be the first boat to the 1000m it was always going to come down to the final sprint.

“The crowd was so loud, it was really exciting and my legs and lungs were burning during those final 300ms. We gave it everything so there are no regrets and it felt great to win my first senior international medal.”

On Monday the Tyrone woman flew out to Italy for a training camp in preparation for the World Championships which are being held in the Czech Republic at the end of the September.