Two fours amongst six winners

May 10, 2008

GB Rowing’s open and lightweight men’s fours were both semi-final winners in style here in Munich today and were joined by four other winners – all Olympic class boats bar one.

The Camelot-sponsored open weight men’s four were both cohesive and imperious and led virtually for the full 2000m. "We found unity", said strokeman Andy Hodge, "and set a good rhythm".

GB’s world champion lightweight men’s four, backed by Siemens, were equally dominant from the outset.

Meanwhile there were emphatic wins from the men’s single and double sculls and the lightweight double scull in the afternoon to follow a win for Mathilde Pauls in the morning’s lightweight single scull.

Sarah Winckless and Elise Laverick are through to the final of the women’s double scull after a gutsy performance into strong headwinds on the far-side lane of the course. Britain’s other qualifiers were the women’s eight, whose head-to-head contest with the Romanian women’s crew was one of the racing highlights of the day, and Andrea Dennis in the second lightweight single scull.

Today’s qualifiers join the women’s quadruple scull and the men’s eight who both qualified by winning their heats outright as well as the lightweight men’s pair, bringing the tally to 12 British boats in finals – nine of them Olympic class.

"The men’s four had something special about them today", said GB Rowing’s Performance Director, "and there were good performances all round".

Full results: www.worldrowing.com
BBC Coverage: Sunday’s finalsw will be live on interactive, highlights
package from 3-4pm (UK Time) on Sunday.
NB – Pictures available on request via e-mail contact details below.

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RACE REPORTS

Alan Campbell‘s single scull race signalled the start of the Olympic class semi-finals this afternoon in a strong headwind – forcing a last minute lane change for all races in order to make conditions fairer.

Campbell made his customary fast start and then settled into a battle with Sweden’s Lassi Karonen and Slovenia’s Itzok Cop. By 1200m Karonen was leading and Cop had dropped out of real contention. Between 1200m and 1500m Campbell upped his rate slightly and pulled level with the Swede before moving into the lead and winning in 7:39.27

"I think all the hard work over the winter is paying off", said Campbell. "Lassi (Karonen) made the race quite hard but I’m pleased with the way it went".

Charles Cousins, a graduate of the ARA’s world class start scheme, sponsored by Siemens, made a big impression in the ensuing semi-final. Despite a poor start he came back strongly in the second half and was within just over a second of third place in a tight finish which saw the young British contender take fifth place.

Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells were also in good racing form. They were ahead early in the race and built on their lead. Even without the advantage of the slightly more sheltered conditions of the grandstand-side lane they looked untouchable.

"I’m really pleased, particularly with their performance in the first half of the race", said their
coach Mark Earnshaw afterwards.

Elise Laverick and Sarah Winckless experienced the opposite end of the wind spectrum in the equivalent women’s event. Drawn in the far-side lane they battled into the headwind gusts to qualify in third place for tomorrow’s final. This race boiled down to a battle with the USA for that all-important third slot. Trailing by quite a distance at 1200m the British duo found something from deep down inside to draw level and then push past in the final 300m to qualify.

Described by one commentator as a "moment of renaissance", the Camelot-backed GB men’s four looked as if they had returned to their best form in today’s semi-final in which they established early dominance and determined to keep it. By 1000m the gap was considerable and by the end even the normally quick-finishing Dutch could not make an impact.

"I think we set a good rhythm and worked hard in the first half of the race", said Peter Reed afterwards. "We found unity", added Andy Hodge who was clearly pleased with the rhythm and coordination in the boat.

Tom Lucy, on board as a substitute for Tom James in the bow seat, continued to enjoy the experience. "It’s the boat I’ve always looked up to and watched", he said, "and it’s great to be a part of it. I think we set a great pace today and our strength showed".

It was a good day for GB’s lightweight men’s squad with trenchant wins for the double scull and four. Both crews took an early lead and dominated from the front. There were fears that the lightweight men’s four might have gone too quickly too soon in their race but they proved unfounded as the quartet, the current world champions and sponsored by Siemens, kept their lead over the challenge from French and Chinese crews. Meanwhile Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase were equally dominant from the outset.

The women’s eight are safely through to the final. They tussled with Romania for much of their repechage today and came off second best – but not by much – against the more experienced crew. The two crews battled all the way down the course with not much more than six feet between them throughout and with GB leading for much of the first half. Only in the final 150m when both crews stepped up a gear did Romania surge to a two-thirds of a length win.

The only British crews not to progress to Olympic-class A finals, besides Cousins in the men’s single, were the two lightweight women’s double scull crews, the men’s pair and the men’s quadruple scull.

Tom Parker and Tom Burton made a concerted effort to pull themselves up into third place throughout the second and third quarters of their race. At the 1500m mark it looked as if they might just make it before running out of steam and finishing fourth.

The men’s quadruple scull could not quite pull an equivalent performance out the bag as their good repechage yesterday and were fifth. They made a good start but were unable to sustain it through the second half. They will now be primed for their B final tomorrow.

Each of the lightweight women’s double scull crews were fourth. Both had to battle hard into the headwind on the less favoured side of the course but to no avail. They battled to stay in contact but gradually slipped out of the qualification zone.

Britain also has two lightweight women single scullers contesting tomorrow’s final in this non-Olympic class after Mathilde Pauls won her semi-final this morning and Andrea Dennis qualified in second place from hers. Dennis moved up from fourth to second in the second half of the race whilst Pauls was marginally behind in the first quarter of her race before taking the lead.

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RESULTS
(For races featuring GB crews only)

Semi-finals

OPEN

WOMEN

Eight

Repechage 2
1. Romania 7:00.10
2. Olivia Whitlam/Carla Ashford/Alice Freeman/Louisa Reeve/
Beth Rodford/Natasha Page/Katie Greves/Jess Eddie
Caroline O’Connor (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:01.97
3. Belarus 7:11.70
4. Germany 2 7:31.66

Double scull

Semi-final 1
1. Annekatrin Thiele/Christiane Huth (Germany) 8:04.15
2. Jitka Antosova/Gabriela Varekova (Czech Republic) 8:06.10
3. Elise Laverick/Sarah Winckless (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:12.17
4. Megan Kalmoe/Ellen Tomek (USA) 8:17.39
5. Gaelie Buniet/Marie Le Nepvou (France) 8:19.21
6. Magdalena Fularczyk/Agnieszka Madaj (Poland) 8:24.72

MEN

Pair

Semi-final 1
1. Niksa & Sinisa Skelin (Croatia) 7:23.26
2. Giuseppe de Vita/Raffaello Leonardo (Italy) 7:26.24
3. Morten Nielsen/Thomas Larsen (Denmark) 7:26.70
4. Tom Parker/Tom Burton (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:27.45
5. Zhang Yongqiang/Wang Xiangdang (China 1) 7:44.39
6. Wu Lin/Zhang Shunyin (China 2) 7:48.01

Four

Semi-final 1
1. Tom Lucy/Steve Williams/Peter Reed/Andy Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN)
6:38.17
2. Netherlands 6:42.79
3. Italy 6:46.53
4. Slovenia 6:50.14
5. France 6:53.40
6. Belarus 1 6:57.74

Single scull

Semi-final 1
1. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:39.26
2. Lassi Karonen (Sweden) 7:41.05
3. Iztok Cop (Slovenia 3) 7:57.19
4. Ralph Kreibich (Austria) 8:04.49
5. Liang Zhang (China) 8:10.82
6. Michal Sloma (Poland 1) 8:25.26

Semi-final 2
1. Olaf Tufte (Norway) 7:50.67
2. Andre Nonarburg (Switzerland) 8:02.44
3. Aleksandar Aleksandrov (Bulgaria) 8:05.83
4 Leonid Gulov (Estonia) 8:06.38
5. Charles Cousins (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 8:06.98
6. Anderson Nocetti (Brazil) 8:26.12

Double scull

Semi-final 2
1. Matt Wells/Stephen Rowbotham (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:05.43
2. Christophe Raes/Tim Mayens (Belgium) 7:09.20
3. Scott Brennan/David Crawshay (Australia) 7:09.37
4. Ioannis Tsamis/Ioannis Christou (Greece) 7:24.19
5. Zheng Chen/Hui Su (China) 7:32.75
6. Meindert Klem/Olivier Siegelaar (Netherlands) 7:43.48

Quadruple scull

Semi-final 2
1. Germany 6:30.71
2. Slovenia 6:34.22
3. Australia 6:39.07
4. Belarus 6:45.96
5. Simon Fieldhouse/Sam Townsend/Alex Gregory/
Bill Lucas (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:57.14
6. Romania 1 7:00.52

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull

Semi-final 1
1. Mathilde Pauls (GREAT BRITAIN) 9:07.15
2. Michaela Taupe Traer (Austria) 9:10.33
3. Yu Hua (China) 9:12/84
4. Helene Olsen (Denmark 1) 9:25.15
5. Carola Tamboloni (Italy) 9:45.53
6. Neylan Ozturk (Turkey) 9:50.80

Semi-final 2
1. Laura Tibitanzl (Germany) 9:04.18
2. Andrea Dennis (GREAT BRITAIN) 9:07.34
3. Candice Hammond (New Zealand) 9:09.36
4. Hilde Gudem (Norway) 9:32.77
5. Weronika Deresz (Poland) 9:50.78
6. Ibtissem Trimech (Tunisia) 10.05.90

Double scull

Semi-final 1
1. Chrysi Biskitzi/Alexandra Tsiavou (Greece 1) 8:12.92
2. Kirsten van der Kolk/Marit van Eupen (Netherlands) 8:16.93
3. Erika Bello/Laura Milani (Italy) 8:21.94
4. Helen Casey/Hester Goodsell (GREAT BRITAIN) 8:27.25
5. Trintafyllia Kalampoka/Christina Giazitzidou (Greece 2) 8:31.85
6. Marie Gottlieb/Sine Christiansen (Denmark) 8:40.98

Semi-final 2
1. Berit Carow/Marie-Louise Draeger (Germany) 8:06.01
2. Haixia Chen/Dongxiang Xu (China) 8:09.33
3. Magdalena Kemnitz/Ilona Mokronowska (Poland) 8:19.31
4. Laura Greenhalgh/Sophie Hosking (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 8:30.69
5. Pamela Weisshaupt/Eliane Waser (Switzerland) 8:36.37
6. Eugenie Vince/Coralie Simon (France) 8:41.09

MEN

Four

Semi-final 1
1. Richard Chambers/James Lindsay-Fynn/Paul Mattick/
James Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.76
2. China 1 6:41.76
3. France 6:42.80
4. Greece 6:56.19
5. Spain 6:56.81
6. Netherlands 6:58.96

Double scull

Semi-final 2
1. Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:16.37
2. Zhang Guolin/Sun jie (China) 7:22.03
3. Jeremie Azou/Remi Di Girolamo (France 1) 7:24.77
4. Jan Vetesnik/Ondrej Vetesnik (Czech Republic) 7:33.21
5. Thiago Gomes/Thiago Almeida (Brazil) 7:34.77
6. Marko Kusurin/Nikola Tomic (Croatia) 7:38.07

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GB CREW LISTS (with clubs/home towns/dates of birth)
Munich World Cup 2008

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

Baz Moffat (Thames RC/Bradford/08.04.78)/Georgina Menheneott
(Mortlake, Anglian & Alpha RC/North Bradley, Wilts/18.12.78)

Eight

Olivia Whitlam/Carla Ashford (Oxford Brookes BC/Northallerton/13.03.79)/Alice Freeman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/06.09.78)/ /Louisa Reeve (Leander/London/16.05.84)/Beth Rodford (Thames RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.04.85)/Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/07.10.84)/
Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes/Ealing/25.04.83) (cox)

Coach: John Keogh

Single scull

Tina Stiller (Wallingford RC/Yarm, N.Yorks/23.6.87)

Coach: Miles Forbes-Thomas

Double scull

Elise Laverick (Thames RC/Poling, W.Sussex/27.07.75)/Sarah
Winckless (Walbrook & Royal/Henley/18.10.73)

Coach: Miles Forbes Thomas

Quadruple scull

Annie Vernon (Marlow RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/Debbie Flood
(Leander Club/Leeds/27.02.80)/Frances Houghton
(Tyrian Club (Uni of London)/Oxford/19.09.80)/Katherine Grainger
(St Andrews BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

Coach: Paul Thompson

MEN

Pair (two boats)

Toby Garbett (Leander Club/Woking, Surrey/14.11.76)/Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)

Tom Parker (Oxford Brookes/Winchester/24.10.82)/Tom Burton

Spare: Oli Moore (OUBC/Burford/22.12.85)

Coach: Jonny Singfield

Four

Tom Lucy (Oxford Brookes/Monmouth/01.05.88)/Steve Williams (Leander
Club/Cheltenham/15.04.76)/Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth,
Glos/27.07.81)/Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden,
N.Yorks/03.03.79)

Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Eight

Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/
Tom Stallard (Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.09.78)/
Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)/
Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.09.80)/
Josh West (Leander/Santa Fe, USA/25.03.77)/
Richard Egington (Leander/Knutsford/26.02.79)/
Robin Bourne-Taylor (Army RC/Oxford/22.07.81)/
Colin Smith (Leander/Henley on Thames/23.09.83)/
Acer Nethercott (University College Oxford BC/Harlow/28.11.77)
(cox)

Coaches: Mark Banks, John West

Single Scull (two boats)

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Charles Cousins (Reading Uni/Cambridge/13.12.88)

Coach: Bill Barry

Double Scull

Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)

Coach: Mark Earnshaw

Quadruple scull

Simon Fieldhouse (Molesey/Thames Ditton/04.09.76)/Sam Townsend
(Reading Uni/Reading/26.11.85)/Alex Gregory (Reading Uni/
Wormington/11.03.84)/Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.09.87)

Coach: Adrian Cassidy

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull (two boats)

Andrea Dennis (Wallingford RC/Oxford/03.01.82)

Mathilde Pauls (Imperial College BC/Berlin & Putney/26.09.83)

Coach: Karl Offord

Double scull (two boats)

Helen Casey (Wallingford RC/Oxford/06.02.74)/
Hester Goodsell (Reading Uni/Cambridge/27.06.84)

Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86)/Laura
Greenhalgh (Reading Uni/Oxford/02.09.85)

Coach: Rob Morgan

MEN

Pair

Matt Beechey (Leander/Worcester/4.3.77)/Rob Williams (London
RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)

Coach: Paul Reedy

Four

Richard Chambers (Oxford Brookes/Coleraine/10.06.85)/
James Lindsay-Fynn (London/Trim/29.09.75)/Paul Mattick
(Wallingford/Oxford/25.04.78)/James Clarke (London RC/
London/31.12.84)

Coach: Robin Williams

Double scull

Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/02.05.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/01.07.78)

Coach: Darren Whiter

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OUTLINE RACING SCHEDULE IN MUNICH
(NB – Germany is one hour ahead of the UK)

Sunday 11 May
FINALS 10.00 – 14.50

NB – may be subject to change. For up-to-date
information visit: www.worldrowing.com