Preston’s Graeme Thomas reaches World Championships semi-final

Thomas, 33, won his quarter-final today after overcoming the Tokyo gold medallist by just over a second – finishing in a time of 6:58.56.

Coming into the World Championships in Racice, Czech Republic, the Preston rower had not competed in single sculls for a decade.

When seeing himself drawn up against such a strong field containing Ntouskos and Olympic bronze medallist Jack Cleary, Thomas admits he was worried he would be unable to cope.

He said: “It felt good today, it was definitely an improvement on the opening round in the heat, it wasn’t as fiddly and overall, I’m really happy.

“There was confidence going into that race that the top three was a realistic thing, so it was about going out there and competing with the Olympic champion from Greece just to see how that moves and work off that.

“It’s been really good, you never know quite how you are going to line up against these guys, especially when the last time I raced in single sculls was ten years ago - you just don’t know if you’re going to be of the required standard.

“But it’s exciting and I’m just growing with confidence the more races I do.”

Thomas finished in the most excruciating position possible in Tokyo, missing out on a medal by three seconds in fourth place with partner John Collins in the men’s double sculls.

Now with Collins advancing through to the semi-finals on Friday and edging closer to a shot at being world champion, he admits the mood in the British camp could not be better as the team come together with one clear goal in mind – to finish top of the medal table.

“My parents are flying out today, they couldn’t watch the race in person, but they had it up on the computer at the airport and they’ve been texting me which has been great,” added Thomas.

“Obviously the team vibe as well, there is a really good vibe across both men’s and women’s teams and everyone is showing a lot of interest in each other’s results which has also been fantastic.

“It would be absolutely awesome if we could get Great Britain to the top of the medal table.”

British Rowing is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain. The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the ongoing World Championships in Racice, head to https://www.britishrowing.org/