Newbury rower Katie Metalli finishes third at Mirabaud Basel Head after more than two years away from international scene

After more than two years away from the international scene Newbury rower Katie Metalli had an impressive trip to Switzerland by claiming a podium place at the prestigious Mirabaud Basel Head.

Due to the pandemic, Metalli has not been able to race overseas since the Duisberg International Regatta in Dusseldorf in May 2019 where she raced with her old Oxford Brookes University team and this was the first trip abroad with her Tideway Scullers crew mates.

The Basel event is becoming firmly established as a must-do on the European circuit and as well as the classic head race, offers the 350 metre “Three Kings” sprint event.

In this event Metalli and her crew were up against boats from 10 different European nations and claimed the best ever result for a British boat in the history of the event; finishing in sixth from 25 starters with only Dutch crews ahead of them - beating the previous best performance of ninth place in 2019 – again by a Tideway crew.

Even more impressive is that in their wake Tideway left behind in ninth a pan-European “Greats 8s” team made up of previous Olympians including Team GB's Victoria Thornley - who herself finished as the best British female single sculler of all time in the summer's Tokyo Olympics where she just missed out on a medal in fourth.

The main event however is over a more substantial 6.4 kilometre upstream head race and held later on the same day but unlike most head races which are simply point A to point B, Basel includes an unusual 180 degree turn making rowing and coxing skills even more important.

And it was in this event that Tideway really did impress, claiming a superb 3rd place on the podium behind the Netherlands' Nereus team and the Great Eights whose skills obviously came into play more over the longer distance.

Basel is also unusual in that cash prizes were on offer with Tideway collecting a cheque for 500 Swiss Francs.

Metalli said afterwards: “In sharp contrast to the image that most people have of rowing it is not a rich sport and does not attract the same level of sponsorship that some other sports have with no one in the sport for the money; indeed nearly everyone outside of the national team at Caversham has to fund our own way through the season.

“Normally we are lucky to get a “pot” if we win a race but second and third place prizes are usually only seen at the World Champs and Olympics.

“The prize money is not of “Beckham” proportions but was a lovely bonus and as we did not travel back until the next day it gave us the chance to have a rare meal out as a crew after the race.

“It actually took me back to my childhood cycling days when winners would usually get cash prizes.

“The main reason for coming to Switzerland however was to get back into the swing of racing international crews and for us to do so well here is a great sign for the rest of the season.

“The ‘turn’ was a really fun element but truthfully we made a right hash of it,” she added. “Luckily we were strong enough to hold our podium place with the strength of our rowing.”