GB Rowing Team now in 12 event finals in Munich tomorrow

June 16, 2012

Semi-final wins for Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, the lightweight men’s double scull Olympic Champions, and single sculler Alan Campbell helped Britain on its way to 14 finalists across 12 Olympic class events tomorrow at the World Cup in Munich.

In an exciting afternoon programme of semi-finals and repechages, Britain was also involved in a compelling semi-final of the men’s four with Australia who held onto win despite a second half surge from the British crew of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory.

“Let’s see what happens tomorrow now”, said Triggs Hodge after the race. “We had a good race today, better than yesterday and every race feels like part of a progression”.

The men’s double and quadruple scull both grabbed their opportunity to progress to tomorrow’s finals – the former were involved in one of the closest finishes of the day.

Andrea Dennis and Imogen Walsh will join the top-ranked British boat of Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland in the final of the lightweight women’s double scull tomorrow and GB will have two crews in the men’s single scull after newcomer Graeme Thomas also qualified.

“Today we’ve been on the right side of some of the tight margins in a which is a positive for us. Some boats need to race their game tomorrow but it has It has been a session of high-quality racing today”,
said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner.

The men’s pair of Cameron Nichol and Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell missed out narrowly in their repechage and now face a B final tomorrow.

Prior to today’s sessions, the GB Rowing Team’s women’s pair and double, women’s quad, men’s and women’s eights had also gone through to finals and are on the race programme tomorrow.

A great race could be in store again in the morning between Britain and one of their key rivals, Australia, in both the men’s four and women’s double scull with the New Zealanders, Romanians and GB also looking strong in the women’s pair.

Racing starts at 08.20 UK time with a full B and A Finals programme and the BBC will be showing the event live from 11am in the UK on BBC 2.

A report on this evening’s International Class and Parlaympic-class finals follows later.

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RACE REPORTS

SEMI-FINALS

The clash of the titans in the men’s four happened a little early here in Munich with Australia and Great Britain, the Lucerne silver and gold medallists respectively three weeks ago, drawn against each other in the semi-finals.

Australia got the better start on the inside lane with Belarus tracking them and Great Britain largely third for the first 500m. As the race moved through halfway the Belarussians dropped back off the pace slightly to leave GB and Australia at the head of the race.

The British quartet of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory – in a repeat of Lucerne – began to claw back the Australians’ two-thirds of a length lead as the crews moved through the 750m go mark.

In a blistering second half and a compelling sprint to the line by both crews, the Australians held out this time to take the semi-final win in 6:00.84 from with GB in second in 6:01.41 and Belarus in third.

“I’d say that was a good race for a semi-final”, said Hodge afterwards. “We had a good race yesterday and this was a step on today”.

Alan Campbell took his semi-final of the open men’s single scull in his stride today. Lassi Karonen of Sweden was always going to be his main opposition. Early in the race, with Campbell leading, Hubert Trzybinski of Germany also briefly challenged before the Swede and the Coleraine man moved out into a clear lead. Karonen did not press Campbell unduly in the final 500m with the latter going onto win in 7:10.41.

In the second semi-final, Graeme Thomas – a real world cup rookie – came through behind home-town favourite Marcel Hacker and reigning
Olympic Champion Olaf Tufte to book a slot in tomorrow’s final in third place in 7:12.09.

As a graduate of the GB Rowing Team Start programme – which finds and develops new talent for the sport – he is one to watch in the future.

Earlier the men’s double of Sam Townsend and Bill Lucas moved safely through into tomorrow’s final. Hugging the inside lane in slight cross-breeze conditions, they held their ground in the first half in which Germany, the 2009 world champions, took the lead before being passed by eventual winners Norway.

As the race wound down to its conclusion the British duo kept their shape and pace and came home third in 6:2961 to book a slot in tomorrow’s final.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter, the Olympic Champions, won their lightweight men’s double scull semi-final this afternoon, beating the gold medallists from Lucerne Stany Delayre and Jeremie Azou from France in the process.

The win will be a confidence-booster going into tomorrow’s final after the Gloucester-London combination were sixth at the last world cup.

Today they waited in the pack before putting in a push with 800m of the race behind them. By 1100m gone they had a half-length lead and looked their old, smooth and connected selves. The French, inevitably launched a counter-attack but Purchase and Hunter held on to win in 6:33.39 with Italy third.

REPECHAGES

The GB Rowing Team men’s quadruple scull left the best until last in their repechage this afternoon in Munich, raced in searing heat.

With 800m left of the race it looked as if the two Italian boats in the field would take the two qualifying places for tomorrow’s finals.

With 500m to go it still looked like that would be the conclusion, even though the British crew of Stephen Rowbotham, Tom Solesbury, Charles Cousins and Matt Wells, had lifted their pace.

Perhaps the second-ranked Italian boat was too wrapped up in their local battle, perhaps the British just timed it well. In the end, the British boat flew through on the grandstand side to take second in 5:57.43.

Australia took an early lead in the men’s pair repechage featuring Cameron Nichol and Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell and from which the top two crews progressed to tomorrow’s final.

In the first half of the race Nichol and Reilly O’Donnell, 2011 World Silver medallists in the men’s eight, were in contention with Serbia and Germany. By halfway, though, the Serbians were looking strong with the British duo in third and Germany fourth.

In a fast finish the Somerset-Durham combination did not have quite enough to gain ground on Serbia who took second behind Australia and now race a B final tomorrow. The British time in finishing third was 6:54.35.

Andrea Dennis and Imogen Walsh showed how much they had improved since the opening world cup in qualifying for tomorrow’s final by winning their repechage today. They sat behind the Dutch earlier leaders for two-thirds of the race before moving up smoothly to the front and went onto win in 7:24.64 to take their pace in the final tomorrow.

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RESULTS
(featuring GB crews only. For full results: www.worldrowing.com)

SEMI-FINALS

OPEN

MEN

Four
1 Australia 6:00.84
2 Alex Gregory/Pete Reed/Tom James/Andrew Triggs Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:01.41
3 Belarus 6:06.92
4 Germany 2 6:10.74
5 Croatia 6:15.87
6 New Zealand 6:18.12

Single scull
Semi-final 1
1 Marcel Hacker (Germany) 7:07.97
2 Olaf Tufte (Norway) 7:11.27
3 Graeme Thomas (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:12.09
4 Juan Carlos Cabrera (Mexico 2) 7:13.04
5 Nour El Din Hassanein (Egypt 1) 7:24.43
6 Hannes Obreno (Belgium 2) 7:38.50

Semi-final 2
1 Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:10.41
2 Lassi Karonen (Sweden) 7:10.97
3 Patrick Loliger Salas (Mexico 1) 7:16.09
4 Hubert Trzybinski (Germany 2) 7:24.55
5 Dimitri Weitnauer (Switzerland) 7:25.86
6 Joaquin Iwan (Argentina 2)7:32.29

Double scull
Semi-final 1
1 Nils Jakob Hoff/Kjetil Borch (Norway) 6:29.32
2 Eric Knittel/Stephan Krueger (Germany 1) 6:29.43
3 Bill Lucas/Sam Townend (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:29.61
4 Luka Spik/Iztok Cop (Slovenia 1) 6:35.88
5 Saulius Ritter/Rolandas Mascinskas (Lithuania) 6:43.86
6 Artur Maier/Joosep Laos (Estonia 2) 7:08.30

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Double scull
Semi-final 2
1 Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:33.39
2 Stany Delayre/Jeremie Azou (France) 6:33.86
3 Lorenzo Bertini/Elia Luini (Italy) 6:36.95
4 Kristoffer Brun/Are Strandli (Norway) 6:37.05
5 Jhosymar Valenzuela Ponce/Alan Eber Armenta Vega (Mexico) 6:55.41
6 Mohamed Nofel/Omar Emira (Egypt) 6:56.38

REPECHAGES

OPEN

MEN
Pair
Repechage 1
1 James Marburg/Brodie Buckland (Australia 1) 6:45.07
2 Nenad Bedik/Nikola Stojic (Serbia 1) 6:51.13
3 Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell/Cameron Nichol (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 6:54.35
4 Hannes Ocik/Paul Heinrich (Germany 2) 6:56.08
5 Ionel Strungaru/Ciprian Duduta (Romania) 6:56.56

Quadruple scull
Repechage 2
1 Italy 1 5:57.01
2 Stephen Rowbotham/Tom Solesbury/Charles Cousins/Matthew Wells (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:57.43
3 Italy 2 5:57.97
4 Switzerland 6:09.87
5 Czech Republic 2 6:13.08

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Repechage 2
1 Imogen Walsh/Andrea Dennis (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:24.64
2 Rianne Sigmond/Maaike Head (Netherlands) 7:25.95
3 Luana De Assis/Fabiana Beltrame (Brazil) 7:39.39
4 Myungshin Kim/Sol Ji Kim (Korea) 7:44.89
5 Yuki Nakayama/Asumi Suehiro (Japan) 7:47.99

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GB ROWING TEAM CREWS LIST
(Munich world cup. Listed from bow to stroke)

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

Helen Glover/Heather Stanning
(Robin Williams)

Eight

Olivia Whitlam/Louisa Reeve/Jessica Eddie/Emily Taylor /Natasha Page/Annabel Vernon/Katie Greves/Victoria Thornley/Caroline O’Connor (cox)
(Nick Strange)

Double scull

Anna Watkins/Katherine Grainger
(Paul Thompson)

Quadruple scull

Melanie Wilson/ Debbie Flood /Frances Houghton/Beth Rodford
(Ade Roberts)

MEN

Pair

Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell/Cameron Nichol
(Paul Stannard)

Four

Alex Gregory/Pete Reed//Tom James/Andrew Triggs Hodge
(Jurgen Grobler)

Eight

Greg Searle/Alex Partridge/Marcus Bateman/Moe Sbihi/Tom Ransley /Ric Eginton/Matt Langridge/James Foad/Phelan Hill (cox)
(John West & Christian Felkel)

Single scull – two boats

Alan Campbell
(Bill Barry)

Graeme Thomas
(Hamish Burrell)

Double scull

Bill Lucas/Sam Townsend
(Mark Earnshaw)

Quadruple scull

Stephen Rowbotham /Tom Solesbury/Charles Cousins/Matt Wells
(Mark Banks)

LIGHTWEIGHTS

WOMEN

Single scull

Kathryn Twyman
(Ben Reed)

Double scull – two boats

Sophie Hosking/Kat Copeland
(Paul Reedy)

Imogen Walsh/Andrea Dennis
(Ben Reed)

MEN

Pair

Paul Mattick/Adam Freeman-Pask
(Rob Morgan/Darren Whiter)

Four

Pete Chambers/Rob Williams/Richard Chambers/Chris Bartley
(Rob Morgan)

Double scull

Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter
(Darren Whiter)

Single scull

Mike Mottram
(Rob Dauncey)

ADAPTIVE CREWS

ASM1x

Andy Houghton
(Mary McLachlan)

LTAMix4+

Pamela Relph/Naomi Riches/David Smith/James Roe/Lily van den Broecke (cox)
(Mary McLachlan)   

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HOME TOWN LISTS 

WOMEN

PAIR
Helen Glover Minerva Bath Penzance 17/06/86
Heather Stanning Army RC Lossiemouth 26/01/85
 Coach: Robin Williams

Eight  

Olivia Whitlam Agecroft RC Warrington 16/09/85
Louisa Reeve Leander Club London 16/05/84
Jessica Eddie Univ of London BC Durham 07/10/84
Emily Taylor Leander Club Lincoln 28/06/87
Natasha Page Gloucester RC Hartpury 30/04/85
Annabel Vernon Leander Club Wadebridge 01/09/82
Katie Greves 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    

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  
Melanie Wilson Imperial College BC London 25/06/84
Debbie Flood Leander Club Guiseley, W Yorks 27/02/1980
Frances Houghton Leander Club Oxford 19/09/80
Beth Rodford Gloucester RC Gloucester 28/12/82
Coach: Ade Roberts    

MEN
Pair
Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell Uni of London BC Durham 13/04/88
Cameron Nichol Molesey BC Glastonbury 26/06/87
Coach: Paul Stannard
 
Four
Alex Gregory Leander Club Wormington 11/03/84
 Pete Reed Leander Club Nailsworth, Glos 27/07/81
Tom James Molesey BC Wrexham 11/03/84
Andrew Triggs Hodge Molesey BC Hebden, N. Yorks 03/03/79
 Coach: Jürgen Grobler    

Eight
Greg Searle Molesey BC Marlow 20/03/72
Alex Partridge Leander Club Alton, Hants 25/01/81
Marcus Bateman Leander Club Torquay 16/09/1982
Mohamed Sbihi Molesey BC Surbiton 27/03/88
Tom Ransley York City RC Cambridge 06/09/85
Richard Egington Leander Club Knutsford 26/02/79
Matthew Langridge Leander Club Northwich 20/05/83
James Foad Molesey BC Southampton 20/03/87
Cox – Phelan Hill Leander Bedford 21/07/79 
Coaches: John West & Christian Felkel  

Single Scull (Boat 1)
 Alan Campbell Tideway Scullers School Coleraine 09/05/83
Coach: Bill Barry

Single Scull (Boat 2)
Graeme Thomas Agecroft RC Preston 08/11/1988
Coach: Hamish Burrell

Double Scull
Bill Lucas London RC Kingswear 13/09/87
Sam Townsend Reading Univ BC Reading 26/11/85
Coach: Mark Earnshaw

Quadruple Scull
Stephen Rowbotham Leander Club Winscombe, Somerset 11/11/81
Tom Solesbury Leander Club Petts Wood, Kent 23/09/80
Charles Cousins Reading Univ BC Willingham, Cambs 13/12/88
Matthew Wells Leander Club Hexham, Northumberland 19/04/79
Coach: Mark Banks 

 LIGHTWEIGHTS

WOMEN

 Single Scull
 Kathryn Twyman Wallingford RC Oxford 29/03/87 Coach: Ben Reed  

Double Scull (Boat 1) 
Sophie Hosking London RC Wimbledon 25/01/86
Katherine Copeland Tees RC Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees 01/12/90
Coach: Paul Reedy
 
Double Scull (Boat 2)
Imogen Walsh London RC Inverness 17/01/1984
Andrea Dennis Imperial College BC Oxford 03/01/1982
Coach: Ben Reed 

 MEN

Pair
Paul Mattick Leander Club Frome 25/04/1978
Adam Freeman-Pask Imperial College BC Windsor 19/06/1985
Coach: Rob Morgan/Darren Whiter

Four
Pete Chambers Oxford Brookes University BC Oxford 14/03/1990
Rob Williams London RC Maidenhead 21/01/85
Richard Chambers Leander Club Coleraine 10/06/85 
Chris Bartley Leander Club Chester 02/02/84
 Coach: Rob Morgan
  
Double Scull 
Zac Purchase Marlow RC Tewkesbury 02/05/86
Mark Hunter Leander Club Romford, Essex 01/07/78
Coach: Darren Whiter

Single Scull 
Mike Mottram Leander Club Stoke Mandeville 08/06/1990 
Coach: Rob Dauncey

ADAPTIVE CREWS

ASM1x
Andy Houghton Maidenhead RC Newbury 01/04/1981
Coach: Mary MacClachlan

LTAMix4+
Pamela Relph Leander Club Aylesbury 14/11/1989
Naomi Riches Marlow RC Harrow 15/06/1983
David Smith Molesey BC Ascot 21/04/1978
James Roe Stratford-upon-Avon BC Stratford-upon-Avon 28/03/1988
Lily van den Broecke (cox) Headington School BC Oxford 08/01/1992
Coach: Mary McLachlan

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TIMETABLE OF RACING IN MUNICH
– all local German times. Germany is one hour ahead of the UK

Thursday 14 June
18.30 – 19.30 Adaptive heats

Friday 15 June
08.30- 17.20 Heats and repechages
18.00 – 18.56 – Adaptive repechages

Saturday 16 June
09.00 – 16.04 – Reps, quarters & semi-finals
16.30 – 18.10 – Finals of the international classes
18.40 – 19.48 – adaptive Finals

Sunday 17 June

09.20 – 13.55 A and B Finals

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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about this event please contact:

Caroline Searle on 07831 755351 or e-mail us on [email protected]

For regional press enquiries contact: Andy Sloan on 01225 443998

GB Rowing Team website, including full rower biogs: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk