GB Rowing Team squad for European Championships
Rowers from the GB Rowing Team with their eye on the 2016 Olympics or a late challenge for the 2012 team head to Plovdiv in Bulgaria this weekend to contest the European Rowing Championships.
A large number of nations send their World Championship crews to the annual regatta, which this year features 400 rowers from 29 countries, but GB will continue its policy of granting development crews the chance of top international competition, days after watching the senior squad secure a record haul of 14 medals at the Worlds in Slovenia.
The five boats bound for Bulgaria do include two rowers who tasted gold on Lake Bled though. Andrea Dennis and Kathryn Twyman were part of the victorious non-Olympic class lightweight women’s quadruple scull in Slovenia with Bury’s Steph Cullen and Imogen Walsh from Inverness.
Now they have another chance to impress in the lightweight double scull. The two women, both from Oxford, finished second behind GB’s current lead lightweight double of Londoners Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking at the first world cup of 2011 in Munich in an historic one-two for GB and Goodsell and Hosking went on to qualify the lightweight women’s double for the Olympics by claiming bronze at the World Championships.
Their coach Pete Sheppard, GB team manager for the European Championships, said: “They are excited as they are sure they can still challenge for seats in the lightweight double so it is an opportunity for them to gain race experience in this boat class.
“For us (the European Championships) is development athletes having their championship opportunity. A lot of the crews we will be racing have been at the World Championships so it will be a tough field.
“Our job is to make sure they learn a lot from the racing and the experience. Many of them still feel they can challenge for 2012 I’m sure but for most of them it is a longer term road and they are thinking about 2016.
“If we can get crews into finals that will be a good job done. Handing out medals might be a tall order.”
GB will field a women’s eight featuring Ro Bradbury from Banstead and Lincoln’s Emily Taylor, who were spares at the Worlds, and Aylesbury’s Monica Relph who saw her sister win gold in the adaptive mixed coxed four in Slovenia.
It also features another family connection, with Lancaster twins Mason and Scott Durant joining forces in the bow and stroke seat of the men’s four, alongside fellow member of Oxford Brookes University Boat Club Matthew Tarrant who won bronze in the men’s eight at this year’s U23 World Championships and Shrewsbury’s Fred Gill who rows for the Hampton-based Molesey Boat Club.
Another Molesey member, Henry Pelly, races with Preston’s Graeme Thomas in the men’s double scull.
Jono Clegg, who won gold in the men’s four at the 2010 U23 World Championships, and Stockton-on-Tees’ Chris Boddy who competed at the 2011 Munich world cup finishing eighth in the lightweight men’s pair with Adam Freeman-Pask, complete the line up in the lightweight men’s double scull for the event which runs from 16-18 September.
Lucinda Gooderman, from Diss in Norfolk, travels with the squad which flies out on Wednesday morning as spare for the women’s eight.
The senior members of the Siemens’ sponsored GB Rowing Team are enjoying their annual three-week break post World Championships and return to training for the start of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic season at the end of September.
For action photos or head shots please email: [email protected]
For biographies please go to the GB Rowing Team website: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
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GB ROWING TEAM CREW-LIST (Name/Club/Home town/Date of birth)
2011 European Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
September 16-18, 2011
(Listed bow to stroke)
WOMEN
Eight
Leonora Kennedy (Sport Imperial/Putney/12.01.1987)/
Zoe Lee (Sport Imperial/London/15.12.1985)/
Erica Bodman (Reading Uni BC/St Martins, Guernsey/24.01.1988)/
Vicki Meyer-Laker (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/18.03.1988)/
Ro Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead, Surrey/17.12.1988)/
Emily Taylor (Leander Club/Lincoln/28.06.1987)/
Monica Relph (Reading Uni BC/Henley on Thames/15.01.1988)/
Polly Swann (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/05.06.1988)/
Zoe de Toledo (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/17.07.1987)
Coach: Eira Parry
Spare
Lucinda Gooderham (Upper Thames RC/Diss, Norfolk/09.06.1984)
MEN
Four
Mason Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Lancaster/12.02.1988)/
Fred Gill (Molesey BC/Shrewsbury/09.01.1986)/
Matthew Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Shepperton, Surrey/11.07.1990)
Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Lancaster/12.02.1988)
Coach: Henry Balihache-Webb
Double Scull
Henry Pelly (Molesey BC/London/30.07.1983)/
Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC/Preston/08.11.1988)
LIGHTWEIGHT
Women
Double Scull
Kathryn Twyman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/29.03.1987)/
Andrea Dennis (Imperial College BC/Oxford/03.01.1982)
Coach: Pete Sheppard
Men
Double Scull
Jono Clegg (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/14.07.1989)/
Chris Boddy (Leander Club/Stockton-on-Tees/16.11.1987)
SUPPORT STAFF
Team manager and lead coach: Pete Sheppard
Coach: Eira Parry
Coach: Henry Balihache-Webb, Oxford Brookes
Physio: Katherine Vials
Lead driver: Phil Gray
Second driver: Karl Offord
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PROVISIONAL ERC SCHEDULE
(for full timetable go to www.worldrowing.com)
Opening Ceremony – Thursday, September 15
Heats & Repechages – Friday, September 16
Repechages, Semi-finals and Finals A, B, C – Saturday, September 17
Finals A and B – Sunday, September 18
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MORE INFORMATION
For a full timetable and results go to the FISA website: www.worldrowing.com
For more information on the GB Rowing Team go to: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
*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 2011/2012
The 2012 season is about to begin for the nation’s top rowers
culminating in the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
SEPTEMBER 2011
16-18
European Rowing Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
27-28
Start of training for the 2012 season – senior and adaptive members of the GB Rowing Team
MARCH 2012
8-11
GB Rowing Team senior trials, Eton/Dorney
MAY
2-6
Rowing world cup I and final Paralympic Qualification Regatta, Belgrade, Serbia
20-27
Rowing world cup II and final Olympic Qualification Regatta, Lucerne, Switzerland
JUNE
13-17
Rowing world cup III, Munich, Germany
JULY
9-15
World Rowing U23 Championships, Trakai, Lithuania
July 24 – August 5
OLYMPIC GAMES REGATTA, Eton/Dorney
AUGUST
12-19
World Rowing Senior and Junior Championships, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
August 25 – September 3
PARALYMPIC GAMES REGATTA, Eton/Dorney
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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:Â (01225) 443998
M:Â CAROLINE (07831) 755351
M:Â ANDY (07714) 168391
GB Rowing Team website www.gbrowingteam.org.uk – full biogs available here.
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Follow us on twitter @gbrowingteam: www.twitter.com/gbrowingteam
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Sports Fund as part of UK Sport’s Podium Programme.
GB Rowing Team News bulletins are issued by the GB Rowing Team office
ENDS
