Marlow, Amsterdam and Henley in GB Rowing Team plans

Britain’s top rowers will be out in force at Henley Royal Regatta this year from June 29 – July 3 but GB Rowing Team officials will also send crews to the Amsterdam International Regatta (25 and 26 June) and The Marlow Regatta next weekend to provide a chance to race in the next three weeks.

“We want to ensure that our Olympic crews have the opportunity to race before the final world cup of the season in Lucerne in mid July”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner.

“We will add crews to the already strong contingent of U23s racing in Amsterdam and The Marlow Regatta have been kind enough to offer us a ‘guest entry’ for our lightweight men’s four to race in the open men’s four event there”, he added. Britain had always intended to  race at Henley but Amsterdam and Marlow are replacements for the Hamburg World Rowing Cup which Britain, like The Netherlands and France, is not now attending.

At the “Holland Beker” event in Amsterdam, Britain’s women’s pair, two lightweight women’s double scull combinations and the lightweight men’s double will face stiff opposition from the complete Canadian Olympic team who will also be racing there.

International media are already reporting that Canada, News Zealand, Australia and, potentially, Germany will also race their top-flight line-ups at Henley Royal Regatta, setting up the potential for some fascinating head-to-heads on the stretch of water that hosted the 1948 Olympic Games.

The GB Rowing Team contingent at Henley will include: a men’s pair, four and eight;  a men’s single, double and quad as well as a women’s quad and two women’s eights – one of which will be targeting the European Championships later in the year and is a longer-term development project.

“We are not able to race all of our boats at Henley as there are not events for every Olympic-class boat. So we’ve put together a plan across the three Regattas for the squad”.

The only exception will be the women’s double scull. Anna Watkins is coming back to training after a recent back injury and is expected to be ready to race with Katherine Grainger in Lucerne.

GB Rowing Team will announce the names in the crews for Amsterdam and Henley in the next ten days.

The GB Rowing Team will contest the final world cup of the season in Lucerne from 8-10 July as part of its final build up to the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, in late August and early September which doubles as the Olympic and Paralympic Qualifying Regatta.

Britain’s team for the World Championships will be announced on July 19th.

PICTURES OF THE GB ROWING TEAM SQUAD IN ACTION AND
AS HEAD AND SHOULDERS ARE AVAILABLE BY E-MAIL:  [email protected]

*SIEMENS is the high performance partner of the GB Rowing Team
(as such they sponsor all the Olympic and Paralympic Class
boats in the senior squad and add value to the GB Rowing
Teams’ Start and High Performance Programme in Clubs Schemes)

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KEY DATES FOR 2011

This important season for the nation’s top rowers
culminates in the  World Championships and
Olympic qualifying regatta:

BLED, SLOVENIA, FROM AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 4, 2011

Britain will seek to qualify boats into as many Olympic
and Paralympic classes as possible here rather than
through the last-chance final qualifying regatta in Lucerne
from May 20-23, 2012.

Meanwhile, here are some additional dates of note for the
GB squad for the remainder of 2011:

KEY DATES FOR YOUR 2011 DIARY

JUNE

17-19
Rowing World Cup II, Hamburg, Germany
[NB – GB has withdrawn from this regatta]

Henley Women’s Regatta

29- July 3
Henley Royal Regatta

JULY

8-10
Rowing World Cup III, Lucerne, Switzlerand

19
Announcement of the World Championships Team

21-24
World Rowing U23 Championships, Amsterdam, Netherlands

29-31
Coupe de la Jeunesse, Linz, Austria

AUGUST

4-7
World Rowing Junior Championships, Dorney Lake, Eton
(this is also the Olympic test event)

28 – 4 September

WORLD ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS, Bled, Slovenia

SEPTEMBER

16-18
European Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about The GB Rowing Teams please contact:

Caroline Searle or Miranda Edwards on:

T:  (01225) 443998
M:  (07831) 755351

e:  [email protected]

GB Rowing Team website www.gbrowingteam.org.uk – full biogs available
here.

Follow us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/gbrowingteam
Follow us on twitter:  gbrowingteam
See our season’s preview on YouTube
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GB Rowing Team News bulletins are issued by the GB Rowing Team office