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Leask and quad scullers catch crab en route to European Championship final

Harry Leask finished third in his semi-final alongside George Bourne, Matt Haywood and Tom Barras
Harry Leask finished third in his semi-final alongside George Bourne, Matt Haywood and Tom Barras (Axel Heimken / Munich2022)

Harry Leask and Britain’s quadruple scullers recovered from catching a rare rowing ‘crab’ to miraculously claw their way into the European Championship final, writes Will Jennings in Munich.

The Edinburgh star, 26, finished third in his semi-final alongside George Bourne, Matt Haywood and Tom Barras after being forced to battle through a highly unusual incident where a rower is unable to extract the blade from the water due to the speed the boat is travelling.

Haywood encountered the problem at the beginning of the contest to derail their early progress but the resilient quartet ploughed on to grab the final qualification spot and book their place in the A Final.

The British boat beat the Netherlands, Lithuania and Ukraine to progress to Saturday’s showpiece and Leask reckons dealing with shock scenario can boost their medal hopes.

The Scot, whose crew finished behind Poland and Romania, said: “Obviously in an ideal scenario, we wouldn’t have caught a crab.

“But it was a really good experience these things can happen on any stage anywhere and the level of competition.

“We had to deal with that and get straight back to what we know.

“The way we worked our way back through the field was really good and should give us massive confidence.

“We’ve now got our place in the A Final, it’s all to play for and we just really need to back ourselves going into tomorrow.

“We need to have confidence, do the best that we can do and see what happens.”

Britain’s quadruple scullers finished second in their heat behind Italy on the opening day of the multi-sports European Championships as they edged past France and Netherlands.

It proved far from plain sailing in Friday’s semi-final but they kept their medal hopes alive heading into a bumper weekend of action.

Rowing is one of nine sports featuring at the second multi-sports European Championships as athletics, cycling, triathlon, gymnastics, table tennis, beach volleyball, sport climbing and canoe sprint also take centre stage over the next 10 days.

Bourne is buzzing to be part of the spectacle and ahead of Saturday’s quadruple sculls showpiece at 12pm UK-time, said: “It feels awesome.

“We did the first race yesterday and you think that’s experience under the belt, but then you get a new lesson to learn and opportunity to try out.

“We came out on the right side of that today and we’re really excited to be in an A Final at this cool event.”

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.