GB Arrive in New Zealand

The GB team arrived in New Zealand just before 9:00am (NZDT) on the 19th October ahead of the World Rowing Championships, which will begin in just over a weeks time.

The world’s leading rowing team consisting of five Olympic champions and nine more Olympic medallists touched down in Auckland to be greeted by the New Zealand media and team manager David Tanner.

“I’ve never been to NZ before and it’s great to be here” said Alan Campbell, who won a sliver medal in the single sculls at the World Championships in Poland last year.

When asked about competing against his long-term rival, Mahé Drysdale, Campbell replied “Mahe is a good friend and he’s asked me to a barbecue this week. But in those seven minutes in the final, I want nothing more than to hurt him and he’ll feel the same”.

Campbell then went on to say he felt Ondrej Synek of the Czech Republic is probably the “biggest threat” this year “He’s going really well”. The reigning Olympic champion, Olaf Tufte from Norway, landed last Monday.

Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed, the British pair who were part of the gold-medal winning men’s four in Beijing, are also aiming to defeat their New Zealand rivals Hamish Bond and Eric Murray. Despite being beaten by Bond and Murray in their last 10 races, Hodge and Reed are confident claiming “as a pair we’re really pushing forward”. Then going on to say “Our focus is definitely on the London Olympics, that’s always the main one that counts. Look at Olaf Tufte, he won two races in four years – one was Athens, the other was Beijing.”

The British Rowing YouTube channel currently has a video clip from a New Zealand news channel showing the GB team arriving. Watch the video.