GB Rowing Team men’s eight into final at first attempt

Olympic champion Alex Gregory, who became a dad for the second time overnight, was part of the GB Rowing Team men’s eight who qualified stylishly for Sunday’s finals at the World Championships in Chungju, Korea.

They won their heat today in 5:32.77 to progress along with the USA. Today’s performance was a big step on from the way they raced at the season’s final world cup in Lucerne and underlined the benefit all the GB crews have gained from their summer’s training camps.

Will Satch, racing in his first world championships, is stroking the boat in Chungju and was clearly pleased with the performance today. “It was really good today, we have buttoned down something we have done in training. Now we’ve got to focus on the final”.

Dan Ritchie, who narrowly missed racing in this boat class at the Olympics last year through injury said: “We did a really good job today but it’s not over yet. We might have bragging rights over the USA in the teams’ hotel tonight but it is all about the final”.

Sam Scrimgeour and Mark Aldred, the lightweight men’s pair, have also reached the final here by dint of second place behind Italy in today’s lightweight men’s pair heats in which the two crews exchanged the lead several times before Italy got the verdict by two-tenths.

Vicky Meyer-Laker and Frances Houghton looked confident in winning their heat of the women’s double scull to reach the semis and the lightweight men’s four are also through to the same stage after a tough heat today.

Another eye-catching men’s performance came from Matt Langridge and Bill Lucas in the men’s double scull. They beat event favourites, New Zealand in their heat to qualify for the semis.

Second chances await in the repechages of the women’s single and women’s eight as both boats were third today in races where only two qualify. There was a touch of cruelty today in the way that Vicky Thornley was caught in the dying strokes today after holding second place until the final 100m.

The women’s eight were coming back on Australia, who took the second qualifying slot behind the USA, but just left themselves a too tall task after a slowish first half.

Sir David Tanner, Performance Director of the GB Rowing Team said: “I am pleased with the team’s heat results so far – with Tom Aggar still to come – it has been a step up since Lucerne [the final world cup of the season] and we are now in a good position to challenge for places in the A finals. That will be tough as always”.

The event is being televised by BBC TV in the UK:

Saturday 31st August
07.00 – 09.00 on the red button and website;
15.00 – 16.30 highlights show on BBC One

Sunday 1st September
07.00 – 09.00 on the red button and website;
15.00 – 16.30 highlights show on BBC Two

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RACE REPORTS

Mark Aldred, who is from Putney but learnt to row at Cambridge and Sam Scrimgeour, who lives in Barnes but is from Forfar originally, became the first GB Rowing Team crew to qualify from a heat into a World Championships final when they were second in today’s lightweight men’s pair second heat.

The duo played cat and mouse from the outset with Italy’s hugely experienced Elia Luini and Martino Goretti. The Italians got the better first 10 strokes before GB settled into a rhythm and pulled ahead at 500m only for the Italians to surge back on them before GB had the lead which they held until the final few metres. Victory to the Italians by two-tenths but with all to play for now in the final.

Matt Langridge, from Cheshire, and Devonian Bill Lucas were next on the course for GB, under blue skies and rising temperatures – unlike the hazy humidity of the two previous days – and they created a sizzle of their own for the British supporters.

They got a good start and gradually moved out into a lead and despite several bites at their heals from the New Zealanders then went onto win. The victory will have given them confidence, even if the Kiwi double of Robert Manson and Michael Arms had some juice left in the tank, as they went down to the Antipodeans at Eton Dorney and at Henley Royal Regatta.

“I think we are still a work in progress.  It’s always disappointing when you come in and you are not at the top straight away. in a season.  But I have been doing this for a long time and I know sometimes you have to be patient. We have had a good training camp, we changed the order – so this is the first race in that order – and we have been working hard with Mark Banks, our coach.  It’s going well but that was only a heat today”.

Lucas added: “We expected the Kiwis to be there but we like to do our own thing and are happy to get a good race in”.

The equivalent women’s boat featuring Frances Houghton, the veteran Olympian, and relative newcomer Vicky Meyer-Laker, went out strongly, rowed with confidence and won their opening heat to move into the semi-finals. They will have been boosted by seeing New Zealand in their wake after losing to them twice this year at world cup level.

By contrast the lightweight men’s four heat which involved GB’s Jonno Clegg, Will Fletcher, Chris Bartley and Adam Freeman Pask was a more edgy affair – as usual in this boat class. The New Zealand quartet went out into the lead but GB tracked them and made sure the rest of the field were kept at bay.

Will Fletcher said: “That was a good start. It was a good way to get the regatta underway and to have a close race with the Danes”.

Jonno Clegg said: “They really want to put on a good show here. This course is on a par with the Olympic Games venues if not better. It is a privilege to be racing here and to see that developing rowing nations also want to host events like this”.

Vicky Thornley came so agonisingly close, in the quickest heat of the day, to making direct progress to the semi-finals of the women’s single scull – in the first year of going solo after time spent previoulsy in crew sweep and sculling boats. She was second for the majority of the race, enough to book a place, but was caught in the dying 15 strokes. Third place but with the chance to get back on track through the repechage system.

The GB men’s eight were quick off the start and had built a half length lead by 500m over France and then the USA. With the crew now stroked by Will Satch and the sun beating on their backs the crew had two second on the nearest challengers by halfway.

America, of course, won the final at the last world cup in Lucerne and there was a sense that the psychology of this race was important. Behind the leaders Italy were two lengths down.

In the final 500m the GB crew kept their shape and style and rowed onwards to the win in 5:32.77. The USA, with a sliver of an overlap took second and France went to the repechage, again by a small margin, in third place. A great way to celebrate for new dad Alex Gregory, whose wife gave birth to a baby daughter back in the UK overnight.

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RESULTS
(Events featuring GB crews only. Full results: www.worldrowing.com)

HEATS

OPEN

WOMEN

Eight

1. USA 6:03.19
2. Australia 6:10.94
3. Beth Rodford/Melanie Wilson/Caragh McMurtry/Louisa Reeve/Jessica Eddie/Zoe Lee/Katie Greves/Olivia Carnegie-Brown/Zoe de Toledo (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:12.77
4. Netherlands 6:16.45
5. Italy 6:30.79

Single scull

1. Kim Crow (Australia) 7:34.20
2. Inge Janssen (Netherlands) 7:37.88
3. Victoria Thornley (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:40.73
4. Micheen Thornycroft (ZImbabwe) 7:49.33
5. Lisa Schmidla (Germany) 7:56.47
6. Nandi Jordaan (Namibia) 10.01.26

Double scull

1. Frances Houghton/Victoria Meyer-Laker (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:53.24
2. Fiona Bourke/Zoe Stevenson (New Zealand) 7:00.31
3. Cecilia Bellati/Alessandra Patelli (Italy) 7:09.15
4. Lin Yu Hsun/Chi Pei Yu (Taipei) 7:43.72

OPEN

MEN

Eight

1. Daniel Ritchie/Tom Ransley/Alex Gregory/Pete Reed/Mohamed Sbihi/Andrew Triggs Hodge/George Nash/William Satch/Phelan Hill (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:32.77
2. USA 5:35.41
3. France 5:36.22
4. Italy 5:50.00
5. Korea 6:09.39

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN

Pair

1. Elia Luini/Martino Goretti (Italy) 6:38.09
2. Sam Scrimegour/Mark Aldred (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:38.29
3. Brendan Hodge/Eric Woefl (Canada) 6:47.86
4. Ilsik You/Park Tae Hwan (Korea) 7:14.40

Four

1. Denmark 5:54.66
2. Adam Freeman-Pask/William Fletcher/Jonno Clegg/Chris Bartley (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:54.66
3. USA 5:59.61
4. France 5:59.89
5. Austria 6:04.55
6. Japan 6:15.49

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OUTLINE RACE SCHEDULE

Events featuring GB crews only. For full schedules and results (www.worldrowing.com). NB – may be subject to change after the draw on Saturday 24 August.

Sunday 25 August
10.00 – 14.00 (Local time)*

Heats

Lightweight men’s pair (LM2-), single scull (LM1x), double scull (LM2x)
Lightweight women’s single scull (LW1x), double scull (LW2x)
Women’s pair (W2-), quadruple scull (W4x)
Men’s pair (M2-), four (M4-), single scull (M1x), quadruple scull (M4x)

Monday 26 August
(10.00 – 14.40 local time)

Heats

Men’s double scull (M2x), eight (M8+)
Women’s double (W2x), eight (W8+), single scull (W1x),
Lightweight men’s four (LM4-),
Para-rowing men’s arms-shoulders single scull (ASM1x), mixed coxed four (LTA4+)

Repechages

Men’s single (M1x)

Tuesday 27 August
(10.00 – 14.50 local time)

Repechages

Lightweight men’s pair (LM2-), single scull (LM1x), double scull (LM2x)
Lightweight women’s single (LW1x), double scull (LW2x)
Women’s pair (W2-), quadruple scull (W4x)
Men’s pair (M2-), four (M4-), quadruple scull (M4x)
Para-rowing men’s arms-shoulders single scull (ASM1x), mixed coxed four (LTA4+).

Wednesday 28 August
(10.00 – 11.25 and 12.20 – 13.00 local time)

Repechages

Men’s double scull (M2x), eight (M8+)
Women’s single scull (W1x) double scull (W2x), eight
Lightweight men’s four (LM4-)

Quarter-finals

Men’s single scull (M1x)

B Finals

Para-rowing men’s arms-shoulders single scull (ASM1x), mixed coxed four (LTA4+).

Thursday 29 August
(13.20 – 17.30 local time)

Semi-finals

Lightweight men’s single scull (LM1x), double scull (LM2x)
Lightweight women’s single scull (LW1x), double scull (LW2x)
Men’s four (M4-)

FINALS

Para-rowing men’s arms-shoulders single scull (ASM1x), mixed coxed four (LTA4+).

Friday 30 August
(B finals 11.24 – 11.50 all remaining 13.33 – 16.55 local time)

B Finals

Lightweight men’s pair (LM2-), single scull (LM1x)
Lightweight women’s single scull (LW1x)

Semi-finals

Men’s single scull (M1x), double scull (M2x)
Women’s single scull (W1x), double scull (W2x)
Lightweight men’s four (LM4-)

FINALS

Lightweight men’s pair (LM2-), single scull (LM1x),
Lightweight women’s single scull (LW1x)

Saturday 31 August
(13.30 – 16.40 local time)

FINALS

Women’s pair (W2-)
Men’s pair (M2-)
Lightweight men’s double scull (LM2x)
Lightweight women’s double scull (LW2x)
Men’s four (M4-), quadruple scull (M4x)
Women’s quadruple scull (W4x)

Sunday 1 September
(B final 13.30 – 14.25 all remaining 15.03 – 16.40 local time)

FINALS

Men’s single scull (M1x), double scull (M2x), eight (M8+)
Women’s single scull (W1x), double scull (W2x), eight (W8+)
Lightweight men’s four (LM4-)

*Korea is eight hours ahead of the UK

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CREW LISTS
GB Rowing Team
World Championships, Chungju, Republic of Korea
August 25 – 1 September

Pair

Helen Glover (Minerva Bath/Penzance/17.06.86)/
Polly Swann (Leander Club/Edinburgh/05.06.88)
Coach: Robin Williams

Eight

Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)/
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)/
Caragh McMurtry (Reading Univ BC/Southampton/22.08.91)/
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)/
Jessica Eddie (London RC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Zoe Lee (Sport Imperial BC/Richmond, N. Yorks/15.12.85)/
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)/
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Oxford/28.13.91)/
Zoe de Toledo (cox) (Leander Club / London / 17/07/87)
Coach: Paul Thompson / Robin Williams

Single Scull

Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)
Coach: Jane Hall

Double scull

Frances Houghton (Leander Club/Oxford/19.09.80)/
Victoria Meyer-Laker (Leander Club/Premnay/18.03.88)
Coach: Paul Thompson

Quadruple Scull

Rosamund Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead/17.12.88)/
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.87)
Monica Relph (Leander Club/Cambridge/15.01.88)/
Lucinda Gooderham (Sport Imperial BC/Bury St Edmunds/09.06.84)/
Coach: Nick Strange

Women’s spares

Katherine Douglas (Leander Club/Midlothian/03.08.89)
Caragh McMurtry (Reading Univ BC/Southampton/22.08.91)

MEN

Pair

Oliver Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/05.06.90)/
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/
Coach: Rob Dauncey

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)
Coach: Christian Felkel

Eight

Dan Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/16.01.87)/
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Cambridge/16.09.85)/
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)/
Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth/27.07.81)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden/03.03.79)/
George Nash (Molesey BC/Guildford/02.10.89)/
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.89)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)
Coach: Jürgen Grobler

Single scull

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School/Coleraine/09.05.83)
Coach: John West

Double scull

Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)/
Bill Lucas (London RC/Kingswear/13.09.87)
Coach: Mark Banks

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)
Coach: Paul Stannard

Men’s Sweep spares

Paul Bennett (Univ of London BC/Leeds/16.12.88)
Matt Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Campden/01.03.89)

Men’s Sculling Spare

Jonathan Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.90)

LIGHTWEIGHTS

WOMEN

Double scull

Kathryn Twyman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/29.03.87)/
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)
Coach: Paul Reedy

Single scull

Ruth Walczak (Molesey BC/Rochdale/15.09.88)
Coach: Paul Reedy

MEN

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)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Pair

Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Forfar/28.01.88)/
Mark Aldred (London RC/London/18.04.87)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Double Scull

Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)/
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)
Coach: Darren Whiter

Single scull

Jamie Kirkwood (Leander Club/Cresswell/30.08.89)
Coach: Darren Whiter

PARA-ROWING

MEN

Arms-Shoulders Single Scull

Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/London/24.05.84)
Coach: Tom Dyson

MIXED

Legs-Trunk-Arms Coxed Four

Pamela Relph (Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)
Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow/15.06.83)
James Fox (Univ of London/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)
Coach: Mary McLachlan

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CONTACT DETAILS

For media enquiries about this event please contact:

The GB Rowing Team Press office at Matchtight Ltd on (01225) 384211 or [email protected]

For pictures please e-mail [email protected]

For media enquiries during the event, please contact GB Rowing Team Press officer Caroline Searle via Korean mobile number: +82 1072842696. NB Korea is 8 hours ahead of the UK. So text is best!

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

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