Sam Nunn says Britain’s new-look men’s four rowers laid down a significant Olympic marker after grabbing a memorable Munich gold at the European Championships.
The Bexleyheath rower, 25, joined forces with Will Stewart, Matt Aldridge and Freddie Davidson to topple the Netherlands on Saturday morning and help cap a golden morning for British Rowing.
The youthful quartet crossed the line 2.24s ahead of the Dutch to clinch one of four gold medals won by British stars on the day.
Nunn believes the triumph stands them in perfect stead for an assault on Paris 2024 as they continue to adapt to the globetrotting international circuit.
He said: “None of us have ever been to the Olympic Games.
“So events like these are massively important for us to find out about the pressure of major championships, performing on multiple days, one day after another in heats, semi-finals and stepping up through the rounds.
“These are massively, massively important for us - I think we really managed to pull together as a crew and collectively work as a stepping stone for what’s to come.
“I’m really pleased with what we put out there.
“We know we’re maybe not the fastest starting crew so we tried to up that in the final.
“We tried to find a new gear and I think we did that well.
“I think we put in a big shift and managed to really see ourselves through - when we went into that final 500m, we managed to see it home, so we’re really, really pleased.”
Britain breezed past Poland in Thursday’s heats to put themselves in a prime position for a medal when Saturday’s multi-sport action got underway.
Passion.
— European Championships (@Euro_Champs) August 14, 2022
It's the only word that can describe why you all have been so incredible at every event!
There's still tickets up for grabs, so make sure you get yours 👇
ENG: https://t.co/4YaZdmxIYy
GER: https://t.co/m0PPYlQHpJ pic.twitter.com/4tClvcV3nd
And they delivered in style at Munich’s 1972 Olympic Regatta Centre by holding off Holland, Romania, Poland, Switzerland and Ukraine to soar to the summit of the podium.
Rowing is one of nine sports taking place at these multi-sport championships with athletics, cycling, triathlon, gymnastics, table tennis, canoe sprint, sport climbing and beach volleyball also featuring.
Aldridge, 26, loved being a part of it and after winning one of the 177 gold medals on offer through the event, said: “It’s exciting, very exciting.
“We knew we were in a good place getting ready for today and we kept our cool, raced our own race and didn’t get flustered.
“It all came up good in the end.”
The multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022, featuring Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Triathlon, Rowing, Sport Climbing, takes place 11th-21st August on the 50th anniversary of the Olympics Games in the Germany city. Watch daily live coverage across BBC One, Two, Red Button, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here