GB Rowing Team ready to take on Worlds and seek Games places

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.

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 in
2009 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 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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GB ROWING TEAM CREW-LISTS
2011 World Rowing Championships, sponsored by Samsung
August 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 scull
Zac 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 Tanner
Chief Coach Men: Jürgen Grobler
Chief Coach Women & Lightweights: Paul Thompson
Assistant Team Manager (Adaptive):  Louise Kingsley

Medical & Sports Science:

Doctor: Ann Redgrave
Lead Physio:  Mark Edgar
Physios:  Liz Arnold, Sally Brown
Psychologist:  Chris Shambrook
Physiologists:  Craig Williams
Nutritionist:  Wendy Martinson

Media/Admin/Logistics:

Assistant Team Manager (admin): Maggie Netto
Resources Manager:  Maurice Hayes
Boatman:  John Tetley
Sponsorship Liaison: Fran Bullock
Press Officer: Caroline Searle

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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 eight
Lightweight men’s pair

Friday 2 September

Women’s eight and quad;
Men’s double
Lightweight men’s four
Lightweight men’s and women’s single sculls
Men’s adaptive single scull

Saturday 3 September

Women’s double
Men’s pair, single and squad
Lightweight women’s quad
Mixed adaptive double scull

Sunday 4 September
Women’s single
Men’s four
Lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls
Mixed adaptive coxed four

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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 scull
Adaptive 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 double
Men’s pair and quad
Lightweight women’s single
Adaptive men’s and women’s single, mixed double and coxed four

Quarterfinals of the:

Men’s double
LIghtweight men’s four and single

Wednesday 31 August  – Morning

Repechages of the:

Women’s eight,
Men’s coxed pair
Lightweight women’s double and quad and men’s quad

Quarter-finals of the:

Women’s single
Men’s four and single
Lightweight men’s double scull

Semi-finals of the:

Women’s pair and quadruple scull
Men’s eight
LIghtweight men’s pair
Adaptive women’s single scull

Thursday 1 September – Morning

Semi-finals of:

Men’s double scull
Lightweight men’s four and single scull
LIghtweight women’s single scull
Adaptive men’s single scull

B Finals of the:

Women’s pair and quadruple scull
Men’s eight
Lightweight men’s pair

FINALS OF THE:

Women’s pair and quadruple scull
Men’s eight
Lightweight men’s pair
Adaptive women’s single scull and mixed ID coxed four

Friday 2 September – morning

Semi-finals of the:

Women’s double
Men’s pair, single and quadruple scull
Adaptive mixed double scull

B-Finals of the:

Women’s eight
Men’s double and coxed pair
Lightweight men’s four and women’s and men’s single scull
Adaptive men’s single scull

FINALS of the:

Women’s eight
Men’s double and coxed pair
Lightweight men’s four, men’s and women’s single scull
Adaptive men’s single scull

Saturday 3 September – Morning

Semi-finals of the:

Women’s single
Men’s four
Lightweight men’s and women’s double scull
Adaptive mixed coxed four

B Finals of the:

Women’s double scull
Men’s pair and single and quadruple scull
Mixed adaptive double scull

FINALS of the:

Women’s four and double scull
Men’s pair and single and quadruple scull
Lightweight women’s quadruple scull
Mixed adaptive double scull

Sunday 4 September

B Finals of the:

Women’s single scull
Men’s four
Lightweight men’s and women’s double scull
Adaptive mixed coxed four

FINALS of the:

Women’s single scull
Men’s four
Lightweight men’s and women’s double scull, men’s quadruple
scull and eight
Adaptive mixed coxed four

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BBC TV and Radio Coverage from Bled

TV

Thursday 1 and Friday 2 September
Red button coverage -more details to follow

Saturday 3 September
1400-1630, BBC One/online

Sunday 4 September
1545-1700, 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

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FINAL DIARY DATE

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, Andy Sloan or Miranda Edwards on:

T:  (01225) 443998
M:  Caroline Searle (07831) 755351
M:  Andy Sloan (07714) 168391

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: www.twitter.com/gbrowingteam
See our season’s preview on YouTube

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The GB Rowing Squad is supported by the National Lottery
Sports Fund as part of UK Sport’s Podium Programme.

GB Rowing Team News bulletins are issued by the GB Rowing Team office