ROWING: Evans considering Rio after bronze (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

ROWING: Evans considering Rio after bronze

5:00pm Friday 20th July 2012 in Sport By Dan Barnes

MICHAEL Evans says that he’ll take his time to evaluate his chances of taking to the Olympic water at Rio 2016 after picking up his third World u23 bronze medal in as many years last weekend.

The 21-year-old Ramsbury rower and his Great Britain team-mates Andrew Holmes, George Rossiter and Patrick Lapage raced home to pip the United States to third-place in a sprint finish in the men’s four race at the World u23 championships in Trakai, Lithuania.

Evans, who is studying History at Princeton University in the USA, also won bronze at the 2011 World U23s in Amsterdam in the men's eight team, with whom he also took bronze in Belarus the year before.

The former Eton College rower said: “It’s always great to come away from those championships with a medal of some kind.

“Obviously, I would have liked to have improved on the bronze medals that I had won in the two previous years, but given the level of competition in the coxless four being quite high, and the limited time we had in the boat prior to the championships, I’m pleased with the overall result.

“In terms of competitiveness and excitement, this is the biggest tournament in my calendar.

“It’s the one time during the year that you get to race against the some of the best crews in your age group from across the world, which invariably results in a lot of close, tense, and exciting races.

“I still have one year left of university, so I’ll be focusing on my studies until I’m finished there.

“As for Rio 2016, there are a lot of fantastic British rowers who will be aiming to break into the British rowing team for the next Olympic cycle, so when I’m done with university, I’ll have to take a look at the team, see where I stack up in comparison and see if Rio is a realistic ambition or not.”

Wiltshire’s Evans began rowing at Eton in 2005 and was part of the college’s junior men’s eight that won the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta in 2009.