GB Rowing Team seeks full advantage from home water

Performance Director Sir David Tanner CBE and Chief Coaches Jürgen Grobler and Paul Thompson are seeking full advantage from home water by today announcing the biggest GB Rowing Team of all-time for a World Cup to race at Eton Dorney from June 21-23.

A total of 81 rowers across 29 boats will contest the event with the dual aim of winning medals whilst also offering top-level racing experience to emerging talents.

By contrast, when the World Cup last took place at Eton Dorney, in 2005, GB fielded just 63 rowers in 17 boats.

“We will have a big crowd at Eton Dorney on all three days and it will be a good opportunity to give our emerging and U23 crews the chance to taste the intensity of World Cup racing alongside our more established and experienced stars”, said Tanner.

“We do not expect to repeat the heights of our medal haul from 2012 – after all this is a transitional year with some top rowers taking a break or having retired – but I am sure we will give the home crowd some exciting racing and something to cheer for”, he added.

The top male sweep-rowers will race in an eight this year at Dorney in a crew which includes Olympic men’s four champions Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory.

This trio all raced at Eton Dorney back in 2005. Reed and Hodge were in the winning GB four and Gregory was in a quad. This year GB has raced an eight at the Sydney World Cup and at Essen International Regatta winning on both occasions.

Tom Ransley, Dan Ritchie, Will Satch, Mohamed Sbihi and cox Phelan Hill, all Olympic or World medallists, and Oliver Cook complete the big boat line-up for this event.

The remaining men’s boats are: a second men’s eight; a four and three men’s pairs.

The men’s squad this season has a new-look quadruple scull with Graeme Thomas and Peter Lambert joining 2012 Olympic finalists Charles Cousins and Sam Townsend.

Alan Campbell returns to the scene of his 2012 bronze medal in the single scull whilst Matt Langridge, a men’s eight bronze medallist and former men’s four world champion, continues his switch to sculling in a double with Bill Lucas.

Brothers Peter and Richard Chambers have been selected into the lightweight men’s double for this event.

Chris Bartley, their Olympic silver lightweight four crew-mate, will stroke the four which includes Olympic reserve and 2012 trials winner Adam Freeman-Pask, alongside two former World U23 champions Will Fletcher and Jonno Clegg.

The first-pick lightweight women’s double remains unchanged from Sydney, where they won a bronze medal, with Kathryn Twyman and Imogen Walsh. GB will also field two male and one female lightweight single scullers.

Back in 2005 Alex Gregory and Annabel Vernon became the first two graduates of the GB Rowing Team Start talent identification and development programme to gain selection in Olympic-class boats for a world cup.

Last year at Eton Dorney 30% of the GB rowing medallists came from this programme including Helen Glover and Heather Stanning who won the women’s pair. Stanning has returned to the British Army for a year and Glover rekindles her 2013 partnership with newcomer Polly Swann. They won gold in Sydney.

Olympic medallist Frances Houghton and Vicky Meyer-Laker were bronze medallists in Sydney. They form GB women’s double for Eton Dorney whilst Vicky Thornley races a single scull.

There will be returning Olympians Katie Greves, Louisa Reeve and Beth Rodford in the women’s eight.

A host of new names will get a run-out in the women’s boats, too. They include Katherine Douglas, Caragh McMurtry, Brianna Stubbs and Eleanor Piggott – the latter two U23s in the second lightweight women’s double after their eye-catching trials performances.

The GB coaches will also want to see the performances under racing conditions of newcomers Mark Aldred, Sam Scrimgeour, Jamie Kirkwood, Matthew Bedford and Wilf Kimberley in the lightweight events.

2008 Paralympic Champion and four-times World Champion Tom Aggar has been selected to race the arms and shoulders single scull (ASM1x) as has Andrew Houghton his perennial training partner and domestic rival. Both Aggar and Houghton beat the 2012 Paralympic bronze medallist at the recent Varese International Regatta.

GB are the reigning legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four (LTA4+) Paralympic Champions but this crew is still in its formative stage. Pamela Relph and Naomi Riches are the returning gold medallists from the 2012 crew.

Work is being done to rebuild the crew around them and they are joined at Eton Dorney by raw recruits James Fox and Oliver Hester, in a crew coxed by Oliver James.

Eton Dorney is part of UK Sport’s £27 million Lottery-Funded Gold Event Series.

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GB ROWING TEAM
CREW LISTS
Samsung World Rowing Cup, Eton Dorney, 21-23 June, 2013

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair

Helen Glover (Minerva Bath/Penzance/17.06.86)/
Polly Swann (Leander Club/Edinburgh/15.06.88)

Eight

Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)/
Katherine Douglas (Leander Club/Midlothian/03.08.89)/
Lucinda Gooderham (Sport Imperial BC/Norfolk/09.06.84)/
Zoe Lee (Sport Imperial BC/Richmond, N. Yorks/15.12.85)/
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)/
Jessica Eddie (London RC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Oxford/28.13.91)/
Zoe de Toledo (cox) (Leander Club/London/17.07.87)

Single scull – two boats

Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)

Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)

Double scull

Frances Houghton (Leander Club/Oxford/19.09.80)/
Victoria Meyer-Laker (Leander Club/Premnay/18.03.88)

Quadruple scull

Rosamund Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead/17.12.88)/
Monica Relph (Leander Club/Cambridge/15.01.88)/
Caragh McMurtry (Reading Univ BC/Southampton/22.08.91)/
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.87)

MEN

Pair – three boats

Karl Hudspith (Oxford Uni BC/Twickenham/31.03.88)/
Paul Bennett (Univ of London BC/Leeds/16.12.88)

Matthew Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Campden/01.03.89)
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/

James Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/02.07.92)/
Ertan Hazine (Univ of London BC/Maidenhead/01.08.91)

Four

Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Inverness/16.10.85)/
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)/
Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)/
Matthew Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Shepperton/11.07.90)

Eight – two boats

Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Cambridge/16.09.85)/
Dan Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/16.01.87)/
Oliver Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/05.06.90)/
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.89)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)/
Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth/27.07.81)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden/03.03.79)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)

Colin Williamson (Molesey BC/Putney/03.04.83)/
John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham/24.01.89)/
Nick Middleton (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/12.08.88)/
Philip Congdon (Molesey BC/East Molesey/06.06.89)/
Tom Clark (Leander Club/Worcester/28.01.89)/
Lance Tredell (Leander Club/Hale/25.10.88)/
Mason Durant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)/
James Edwards (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/26.09.91)/
Henry Fieldman (cox) (Cambridge Univ BC/Barnes/25.11.88)

Single scull – two boats

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Jonathan Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.90)

Double scull

Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)/
Bill Lucas (London RC/Kingswear/13.09.87)

Quadruple scull

Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC/Preston/08.11.88)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC/Reading/26.11.85)/
Charles Cousins (Leander Club/Willingham/13.12.88)/
Peter Lambert (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/03.12.86)

LIGHTWEIGHTS

WOMEN

Single scull

Ruth Walczak (Molesey BC/Rochdale/15.09.88)

Double scull – two boats

Kathryn Twyman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/29.03.87)/
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)

Brianna Stubbs (Wallingford RC/Headington/13.07.91)/
Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Olney/16.05.91)

MEN

Pair – two boats

Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Fofar/28.01.88)/
Mark Aldred (London RC/London/18.04.87)

Matthew Bedford (Univ of London BC/Maidenhead/21.01.91)/
Wilf Kimberley (Imperial College BC/London/15.07.92)

Four

Adam Freeman-Pask (Reading Univ BC/Windsor/19.06.85)/
William Fletcher (Leander Club/Chester-le-Street/24.12.89)/
Jonathan Clegg (Leander Club/Maidenhead/14.07.89)/
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)

Single scull – two boats

Jamie Kirkwood (Leander Club/Cresswell/30.08.89)

Chris Boddy (Leander Club/Thornaby-on-Tees/16.11.87)

Double Scull

Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)/
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)

PARA-ROWING

MEN

Arms-shoulders single scull – two boats

Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/London/24.05.84)

Andrew Houghton (Maidenhead RC/Newbury/06.04.81)

MIXED

Legs-trunks-arms coxed four

Pamela Relph (Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)/
Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow/15.06.83)/
James Fox (Univ of London BC/Peterborough/02.05.92)/
Oliver Hester (Henley RC/Henley-on-Thames/18.02.90)/
Oliver James (cox) (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/05.10.90)

For full biogs visit: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
For club, home towns & dates of birth – see entry list below
Tickets for Eton Dorney: www.wrcupetondorney2013.com
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CONTACT DETAILS

For media enquiries about this event please contact:

Miranda Edwards or Caroline Searle: [email protected] or 01225 384 211 – PLEASE NOTE NEW NUMBER or 07831 755351

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

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Notes to Editors’
The World Rowing Cup at Eton Dorney is part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series.
UK Sport is the nation’s high performance sports agency and invested £313million of National Lottery and Government money in preparing the British Olympic and Paralympic team for London 2012 where they achieved incredible success winning 65 and 120 medals respectively
Its Gold Event Series will invest £27million of National Lottery funding to support the bidding and staging costs of major sporting events on home soil, as well as providing specialist support to organisers. Events are supported to build on the wonderful success of London 2012 through their likely performance impact, but also to maximise the wider sporting, social, cultural, economic and environmental benefits.
The Gold Event Series will aim to bring over 70 of the world’s most prestigious sporting events to the UK, including 36 World and European Championships. This ambitious programme will support British athletes’ preparation and qualification for Rio 2016, while generating approximately £287 million of additional expenditure in host cities and regions and bringing over 250,000 overseas visitors to the UK. Events already secured include the 2017 World Athletics and IPC Athletics Championships to be staged in the London Olympic Stadium and the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Hydro Arena in Glasgow.