Thames members raced superbly over the finals weekend at the World Championships at Munich to bring away five medals, including one Gold.

As bow of the British women's quadruple scull, Annie Vernon was first across the finish line as the crew took Gold in imperious style, ahead of Germany and China.  Annie was the 'new girl' in the quad this year but rose to the challenge magnificently to become World Champion.

In the double scull on Saturday, Elise Laverick and Leander's Anna Bebington came through strongly in the second half of the race to take Bronze, and missed snatching Silver from New Zealand by mere centimetres on the line.  Anna has been out with injury for much of the summer and the crew have only been able to train regularly for the last six weeks, so this was a commendable result.

Supporters of the eight (which trains at Thames) waited for the start of their final on Sunday with nervousness: of the six crews racing only five would qualify for the Beijing Olympics and past form suggested that the race would be extremely close.  We should not have been worried.  The eight, in lane six, was strong from the start and in the final sprint held off strong challenges from Germany and Australia to take a well-deserved Bronze.  For Thames members Alison Knowles, Baz Moffat and Carla Ashford this was a first international senior medal.

Beth Rodford and Natasha Page were unable to finish in the top two of the B final to secure Olympic qualification.  However as part of the eight's training group, they still have a strong chance of going to Beijing next year.

All in all this was Thames's strongest representation as part of the Great Britain team at the World Championships for a good many years.  Congratulations go to all crews and their coaches.