Men’s fours end sixth at World Champs in Korea

Our Olympic gold medal-winning lightweight men’s fours have ended sixth in the final at the World Rowing Championships in Chungju, Korea, writes Mark Etheridge.

The London combination is missing the injured Matthew Brittain, who is taking a year out of the boat as he nurses a bad back.

He’s replaced by Michael Voerman, who joins Sizwe Ndlovu, John Smith and James Thompson.

The four clocked a time of 6min 11.99sec in a race won by Denmark in 5:55.68 from New Zealand (5:57.28) and Great Britain (5:59.98)

The men got to the final via the heats, repechage and semi-final route.

Olympians Naydene Smith and Lee-Ann Persse also ended sixth in their final, being timed at 7:39.26 in a race won by Britain in 7:22.82.

Men’s pairs combination, Shaun Keeling and Lawrence Brittain teamed up to take second in the B Final with a time of 6:41.08 behind Britain after overhauling Serbia in the final stages.

And in a mirror of that result it was Kirsten McCann and Kate Johnstone who took silver in their B Final (lightweight women’s double skulls). Their time of 7.22.16 saw them just edge Sweden (7:23.34) as Australia won in 7:19.97.