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FAIRFIELD, Conn. Southport's Lucy Grinalds helped the United States win the gold medal in the Women's Four at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Eton, Great Britain. Grinalds, who will attend Harvard, rowed for the Norwalk-based Connecticut Boat Club. Her CBC coach, Liz Trond, coached the four at the world meet.
"I'm ecstatic right now. I can't believe it all came together. I've been nervous about it for the past month, but I've been visualizing it every day," Grinalds, a four-time junior national team member, said on the USRowing website. "When we started, I was like, 'Is this actually starting.' After we crossed the first 500 and saw that we were up, we were so happy. We just kept pushing it and pushing it, and we had open water going into the last 500. It just feels like my four years have paid off."
The team included Chandler Lally, Jessica Eiffert and Mia Croonquist. Grinalds, Lally and Eiffert were on the team that won a silver medal at the world meet last year.
The U.S. finished with a time of 6:48.77, with Great Britain taking silver in a 6:50.53. New Zealand won bronze in a 6:51.36.
"It was the most fun boat that I have ever coached," Trond told USRowing. "We had one bad warm-up that I can remember in Princeton, but still had a great practice, and one mediocre practice since they came together June 15th. They have been healthy, tried hard, had great attitudes, and I think this is a result of amazing hard work."
Grinalds was nearly joined on a world podium by Westport's Lizzy Youngling. Her quadruple sculls crew finished fourth, missing the bronze by less than a second. Germany won the race, followed by The Netherlands and Romania. The fourth-place finish was the best ever by the U.S. in the race.
The U.S. men's eight, with Westport's Max Meyer-Bosse, finished fifth. In the final of the women's pair, Lucy's sister Rosie and Corinne Bozzini finished sixth.
In other finals on Saturday, the men's doubles sculls tandem of Graham Anderson (Weston) and Charlie Campbell (New Canaan) finished sixth in the C final and 18th overall.
The men's quadruple sculls advanced to Sunday's B final by finishing fifth in its semifinal. Jonathon Rosow of New Canaan crew is a member of that team.
Racing concludes Sunday. For complete results, visit the USRowing website.
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