August 24, 2011 News British Rowing NewsBritish Rowing EventsRowing CommunityGB Rowing TeamCompetitions and ClubsIndoor RowingPartners#YourStoriesArchive GB Rowing Team ready to take on Worlds and seek Games places GB Rowing Team The GB Rowing Team arrived in Bled, Slovenia, today from their European-based training camps ready for the challenge of the 2011 World Championships which start on Sunday (28 Aug), run to 4 September and double as a qualifying regatta for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The 68-rower Siemens-sponsored GB squad is fielding boats in all the Olympic classes – five women’s, three lightweight and six men’s and three of the four Paralympic classes. There are also crews contesting three of the international lightweight classes.ADVERT Britain won four golds, four silvers and a bronze in the Olympic classes at the last World Championships as well as a Paralympic class gold and silver. “I’m careful not to make too many predictions but I can assure you we have a really ambitious team. This is as good as any team we have sent to any World Championships. The excitement we have in this team is the breadth of potential across it”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner. “I’m sure we will have a really successful Worlds. As to the opposition, we anticipate that the Chinese will come on strongly. I’m expecting some nations to step up. It will be tougher in Bled I’m sure than at the last world cup in Lucerne in July”, he added. Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, the “unknowns” who won World women’s pair silver in 2010 in New Zealand, will be the first GB Olympic-class boat in action on the morning of Sunday August 28th. Should Stanning and Glover progress from their heat they will race a semi-final on Wednesday and a final on Thursday. The duo came into the sport through talent identification schemes and have been developed and coached to their current medal-contender status by the GB Rowing Team’s lottery-backed Start programme. Stanning, an Army Officer, was a world U23 champion in 2007 whilst Glover, a former PE teacher, only started to row in the Beijing Olympic year. Pressure will rise in Bled for all nations and crews at semi-final stage as usual at a World Championships but this year will be more intense than ever with boats needing to finish eleventh or better, depending on the boat category, at the Worlds to make the Games next year. The 2011 World Championships programme also provides a dress rehearsal for the 2012 Games with four, rather than the traditional two, days of finals set to take place at Eton Dorney next year. Britain’s quadruple scull of Annabel Vernon, Debbie Flood, Beth Rodford and Mel Wilson race in the same session as the women’s pair and also have finals on Thursday. All bar Wilson formed part of the crew that won world gold last Autumn on New Zealand’s Lake Karapiro but face a revamped German and top Ukrainian crew amongst the contenders in Bled. Flood said: “It is always exciting to race. The hard slog is through the winter and racing is a chance to prove how hard the training has been”. Medals on Thursday are also at stake in the men’s eight, stroked by “Start” rower Dan Ritchie and coxed by Phelan HIll. This is a crew which includes 2008 Olympic silver medallist Alex Partridge as well as Greg Searle, the 1992 Olympic champion who continues his comeback trail, and Cambridge Blue Tom Ransley. Londoner Moe Sbihi summed up the eight and the team’s dual goals recently when he said: “The aim has to be to qualify every boat so we can focus on 2012 rather than having to worry about qualifying next year and hopefully we will win some medals in the process of qualifying”. A top seven placing in Bled will see the men’s eight en route to London. World U23 champions Kieren Emery and Peter Chambers will also hope to reach Thursday’s final of the international class lightweight men’s pair. Friday’s finals session could see the self-styled “Red Express” of relative-newcomer Marcus Bateman and the more experienced Matt Wells come down the track in the men’s double scull in which the red-headed duo are reigning world silver medallists but know they have tough opposition from New Zealand and France amongst others in one of the sport’s more hotly-contested events. If Wells goes all the way to 2012 he will be taking part in his fourth Olympics, having won bronze in 2008 in the double. This is also finals day for the women’s eight – which looks set to be stroked by Vicky Thornley – who along with Stanning and Glover learnt to row through the Start programme based at the University of Bath under Paul Stannard. The crew’s first focus in Bled will be a top-five finish to get the boat through to 2012. By contrast, the lightweight men’s four of Chris Bartley, Paul Mattick, Rob Williams and Richard Chambers go to the start-line in Bled as winners of last month’s world cup in Lucerne – albeit with Peter Chambers on board as a substitute for the then injured Bartley – and won the world title by a whisker in 2010 in one of the most exciting finishes of the last World Championships. Londoner Tom Aggar, in the adaptive men’s single scull, should race in Friday’s final of an event in which he is the reigning Paralympic and three-times World Champion. He talked recently of using the pressure of being favourite and of the impending home Games: “You just use the pressure in training to keep yourself working hard and keep yourself training. There is great expectation for good performances time after time and you don’t get those without putting in the training. You get out what you put in.” Saturday offers up four Olympic class finals as well as the mixed adaptive double for which Sam Scowen and Army Officer Nick Beighton will hope to qualify and book a British place at the 2012 Paralympics. Reigning world double champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins will seek to maintain their 2010 dominance despite an injury-disrupted early season for Watkins. Watkins says that the duo is unafraid of the pressure of being favourites to win: “Different people respond to pressure in different ways and for sure we have got a target on our backs, we can’t hide now. But I’ve always been happy in something that I’m confident about. And the favourites win more often than the underdog”. 2010 world bronze medallist, Alan Campbell, in the men’s single scull, and the men’s quadruple scull of Sam Townsend, Tom Solesbury, Bill Lucas and Stephen Rowbotham could also have a tilt at the medals on Saturday in the sculling events in which Britain has developed considerable strength in depth since 2004. Two of Britain’s reigning Olympic Champions, Andrew Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed should also be in finals action on Saturday. They won their Olympic gold in the men’s four but Britain’s top two male athletes – on the testing parameters – have been doing battle since early 2009 in the men’s pair. Reed and Hodge were silver medallists behind New Zealand’s Eric Murray and Hamish Bond in that year and an even closer second to them on their home waters in Karapiro last year. New Zealand, then, are the main target but other strong contenders will include the Canadian 2008 Olympic silver medallists of Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder. On Sunday the top British focus will be on the men’s four and the mixed adaptive coxed four and the two lightweight Olympic doubles. Alex Gregory will seek to stroke his men’s four to victory to obliterate the memories of 2010 when the crew were rowed out of the medals having led the final at halfway. Since 2010 Tom James, Beijing Olympic gold winner with Hodge and Reed, has won a seat in the crew alongside Matt Langridge and Ric Egington with Alex Partridge moving to the eight. The 2011 quartet go to Bled as world cup winners in Lucerne a month ago. Their Paralympic counterpart, coxed by Lily van den Broecke for the first time, includes James Roe, Naomi Riches, Pam Relph and the returning 2009 world champion Dave Smith who has come back into the sport after surgery on a life-threatening tumour in his neck which left him unable to even walk this time last year. Olympic champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase will test their progress and their form in Bled after a season troubled by a post-viral episode for Purchase which ruled them out of the world cup finals in Lucerne at which Mark Hunter raced with Adam Freeman Pask, Britain’s lightweight single scull contender in Bled with a potential final on Friday. “Every year’s a different experience but this one’s another challenge, not competing at the last world cup (with Zac). But it gives nobody any idea of our form and where we are. And if we turn up ready to go that’s in our advantage”, said Hunter. Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking are Britain’s contenders in the lightweight women’s double scull. This crew was a medallist in2009 and a finalist at the 2010 World Championships and has since won medals at two world cups this season. The music teacher and research scientist did not have their best performance in the final in New Zealand last Autumn and will be seeking to move on from there to challenge for a medal this time round. Frances Houghton, the Athens and Beijing Olympic silver medallist and 2010 world gold winner in the women’s quadruple scull. will seek to defy injury in the women’s single scull in Bled. The Oxford woman, a talented cook as well as sportsperson, can book Britain a place in the 2012 Games in this category if she finishes in the top nine in Bled. Lightweight women’s single sculler Kat Copeland, the world U23 champion, and the lightweight women’s quadruple scull of Steph Cullen, Andrea Dennis, Imogen Walsh and Kathryn Twyman will be on hand as reserves for Goodsell and Hosking but also have their own chances to progress through the rounds of events that have their finals on Friday and Saturday respectively. *SIEMENS is the high performance partner of the GB Rowing Team(as such they sponsor all the Olympic and Paralympic Classboats in the senior squad and add value to the GB RowingTeams’ Start and High Performance Programme in Clubs Schemes) SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE=============================== ===============================GB ROWING TEAM CREW-LISTS2011 World Rowing Championships, sponsored by SamsungAugust 28 – September 4, 2011(listed bow to stroke plus cox) OPEN WOMEN Pair Helen Glover (Minerva Bath/Penzance/17.06.86)/Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85) Coach: Robin Williams Eight Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)/Jo Cook (Leander Club/Sunbury-on-Thames/22.03.84)/Jessica Eddie (Univ of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC/Edinburgh/15.01.82)/Natasha Page (Gloucester RC/Hartpury/30.04.85)/Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)/Katie Solesbury (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)/Caroline O’Connor (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Ealing, London/25.04.83) Coach: Nick Strange Single scull Frances Houghton (Leander/Oxford/19.09.80) Coach: TBC Double scull Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)/Katherine Grainger (St. Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75) Coach: Paul Thompson Quadruple scull Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Guiseley/27.02.80)/Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.02.82)/Annabel Vernon (Leander Club/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)/ Coach: Ade Roberts RESERVES Ro Bradbury (Leander/Banstead, Surrey/17.12.88)Emily Taylor (Leander/Lincoln/28.06.87) OPEN MEN Pair Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)/Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N. Yorks/03.03.79) Coach: Jürgen Grobler Four Matthew Langridge (Leander Club /Northwich/20.05.83)/Richard Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)/Tom James (Molesey BC/Wrexham/11.03.84)/Alex Gregory (Leander Club /Wormington, Glos/11.03.84) Coach: John West Eight Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)/Cameron Nichol (Molesey BC/Glastonbury/26.06.87)/James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/Alex Partridge (Leander Club /Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/Greg Searle (Molesey BC/Marlow/20.03.72)/Tom Ransley (York City RC/Cambridge/06.09.85)/Daniel Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/06.01.87)/Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79) Coach: Christian Felkel Single scull Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83) Coach: Bill Barry Double scull Matthew Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)/Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82) Coach: Mark Earnshaw Quadruple scull Tom Solesbury (Leander Club/Petts Wood, Kent/23.09.80)/Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)/Bill Lucas (London RC/Kingswear/13.09.87)/Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC/Reading/26.11.85) Coach: Mark Banks RESERVES Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)Constantine Louloudis (Isis BC/London/15.09.91)/George Nash (Cambridge Uni BC/Guildford/02.10.89) LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN Single scull Katherine Copeland (Tees RC/Ingelby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees/01.12.90) Coach: James Harris Double scull Hester Goodsell (Imperial College BC/London/27.06.84)/Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86) Coach: Paul Reedy Quadruple scull Steph Cullen (London RC/Bury, Lancs/27.11.80)/Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)/Kathryn Twyman (OUWBC/Edmonton, Canada/29.03.87)/Andrea Dennis (Imperial College BC/Oxford/03.01.82)/ Coach: Ben Reed LIGHTWEIGHT MEN Pair Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)/Kieren Emery (Leander Club/Newcastle-upon-Tyne/01.06.1990) Coach: Peter Sheppard Four Richard Chambers (Leander Club /Coleraine/10.06.85)/Chris Bartley (Leander/Wrexham/02.02.84)/Paul Mattick (Leander Club /Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)/Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)/ Coach: Rob Morgan Single scull Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85) Coach: Darren Whiter Double scullZac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury/02.05.86)/Mark Hunter (Leander Club /Romford, Essex/01.07.78) Coach: Darren Whiter ADAPTIVES MEN Arms & shoulders single scull (ASM1x) Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/London/24.05.84) Coach: Tom Dyson Trunk & arms mixed double scull (TAMix2x) Nick Beighton (Guildford RC/Yateley/29.09.81)/Sam Scowen (Dorney BC/Wokingham/29.10.87) Coach: Tom Dyson Legs, trunk & arms mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+) Pamela Relph (Birmingham Uni BC/Aylesbury/14.11.89)/Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow/15.06.83)/James Roe (Stratford upon Avon BC/ Stratford upon Avon/28.03.88)/David Smith (Reading Uni BC/Dunfermline/21.04.78)/Lily van den Broecke (cox) (Headington School BC/Oxford/08.01.92) Coach: Mary McLachlan SUPPORT STAFF Performance: Team Manager: David TannerChief Coach Men: Jürgen GroblerChief Coach Women & Lightweights: Paul ThompsonAssistant Team Manager (Adaptive): Louise Kingsley Medical & Sports Science: Doctor: Ann RedgraveLead Physio: Mark EdgarPhysios: Liz Arnold, Sally BrownPsychologist: Chris ShambrookPhysiologists: Craig WilliamsNutritionist: Wendy Martinson Media/Admin/Logistics: Assistant Team Manager (admin): Maggie NettoResources Manager: Maurice HayesBoatman: John TetleySponsorship Liaison: Fran BullockPress Officer: Caroline Searle SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE=============================== ===============================SCHEDULE OF MEDALS/EVENTS IN BLED WHEN ARE THE MEDALS DECIDED?(events featuring GB crews only) Thursday 1 September Women’s pair and quad; Men’s eightLightweight men’s pair Friday 2 September Women’s eight and quad; Men’s doubleLightweight men’s fourLightweight men’s and women’s single scullsMen’s adaptive single scull Saturday 3 September Women’s doubleMen’s pair, single and squadLightweight women’s quadMixed adaptive double scull Sunday 4 SeptemberWomen’s singleMen’s fourLightweight men’s and women’s double scullsMixed adaptive coxed four ===============================SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Sunday 28 August- Morning Heats of the: Women’s pair, double and quadruple scull;Men’s pair, eight, double and quadruple scull;Lightweight men’s single, pair and four. Sunday 28 August – Afternoon Heats of the: Women’s single;Men’s four and single scull;Lightweight men’s double scull Monday 29 August – morning Heats of the: Women’s eight, Men’s coxed pair;Lightweight women’s double and quadruple scullAdaptive women’s and men’s single sculls; mixed double and coxed four Repechages of the: Women’s pair and single and quadruple scull;Men’s four, eight and single and double scull;Lightweight men’s pair, four and single and double scull Tuesday 30 August – morning Repechages of the: Women’s doubleMen’s pair and quadLightweight women’s singleAdaptive men’s and women’s single, mixed double and coxed four Quarterfinals of the: Men’s doubleLIghtweight men’s four and single Wednesday 31 August – Morning Repechages of the: Women’s eight, Men’s coxed pairLightweight women’s double and quad and men’s quad Quarter-finals of the: Women’s singleMen’s four and singleLightweight men’s double scull Semi-finals of the: Women’s pair and quadruple scullMen’s eightLIghtweight men’s pairAdaptive women’s single scull Thursday 1 September – Morning Semi-finals of: Men’s double scullLightweight men’s four and single scullLIghtweight women’s single scullAdaptive men’s single scull B Finals of the: Women’s pair and quadruple scullMen’s eightLightweight men’s pair FINALS OF THE: Women’s pair and quadruple scullMen’s eightLightweight men’s pairAdaptive women’s single scull and mixed ID coxed four Friday 2 September – morning Semi-finals of the: Women’s doubleMen’s pair, single and quadruple scullAdaptive mixed double scull B-Finals of the: Women’s eightMen’s double and coxed pairLightweight men’s four and women’s and men’s single scullAdaptive men’s single scull FINALS of the: Women’s eightMen’s double and coxed pairLightweight men’s four, men’s and women’s single scullAdaptive men’s single scull Saturday 3 September – Morning Semi-finals of the: Women’s singleMen’s fourLightweight men’s and women’s double scullAdaptive mixed coxed four B Finals of the: Women’s double scullMen’s pair and single and quadruple scullMixed adaptive double scull FINALS of the: Women’s four and double scullMen’s pair and single and quadruple scullLightweight women’s quadruple scullMixed adaptive double scull Sunday 4 September B Finals of the: Women’s single scullMen’s fourLightweight men’s and women’s double scullAdaptive mixed coxed four FINALS of the: Women’s single scullMen’s fourLightweight men’s and women’s double scull, men’s quadruplescull and eightAdaptive mixed coxed four SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE=============================== ===============================BBC TV and Radio Coverage from Bled TV Thursday 1 and Friday 2 SeptemberRed button coverage -more details to follow Saturday 3 September1400-1630, BBC One/online Sunday 4 September1545-1700, BBC Two/online RADIO 5 Live Sports Extra on DAB Radio Thursday 1 September From 11.15 Friday 2 September From 10.55 Saturday 3 September From midday live on 5 Live (not 5 Live Sports Extra) Sunday 4 September From 10.55 SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE=============================== ===============================FINAL DIARY DATE SEPTEMBER 16-18European Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE=============================== ===============================CONTACT DETAILSFor media enquiries about The GB Rowing Teams please contact: Caroline Searle, Andy Sloan or Miranda Edwards on: T: (01225) 443998M: Caroline Searle (07831) 755351M: Andy Sloan (07714) 168391 e: [email protected] GB Rowing Team website www.gbrowingteam.org.uk – full biogs availablehere. Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/gbrowingteamFollow us on twitter @gbrowingteam: www.twitter.com/gbrowingteamSee our season’s preview on YouTube =============================== =============================== The GB Rowing Squad is supported by the National LotterySports Fund as part of UK Sport’s Podium Programme. GB Rowing Team News bulletins are issued by the GB Rowing Team office ADVERT