21 boat GB Rowing Team line-up for world cup

June 10, 2014

Performance Director Sir David Tanner has overseen some changes, announced today, to the GB Rowing Team line-ups which raced at the European Championships nine days ago.

Whilst the European title-winning men’s four of Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Andrew Triggs Hodge is untouched for next week’s world rowing cup in Aiguebelette, France, the same is not true of other medal winners like the women’s pair and the men’s and women’s eights.

Heather Stanning returns to competition and will race with Helen Glover in the women’s pair. Stanning is now back to full fitness.

Polly Swann stepped in to rekindle her World Championships gold medal partnership with Glover at the Europeans and the duo duly won gold. Swann will now be called upon to add all that experience to the women’s eight who themselves enjoyed a successful Championships, taking silver.

Monica Relph and Olivia Carnegie Brown will race in a second women’s pair. The women’s quadruple scull and double remain the same.

Alan Sinclair and Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell have been drafted out of the men’s pair and into the eight that will be coxed by Henry Fieldman, a former World U23 medallist and senior European finalist, rather than Olympic bronze medal winner and World Champion Phelan Hill.

“Once again, we are fielding a strong squad but one where we test out young rowers and new combinations”, said Tanner. “This is a critical year in the Olympic cycle and the Chief Coaches, Paul Thompson and Jurgen Grobler, are aiming to win medals but also to tease out our longer-term strengths”.

Great Britain will field a new-look men’s pair at the French venue, which will host next year’s World Championships, and a second men’s four. The pair will be Matt Gotrel and Paul Bennett – the latter returning to the squad after injury. The duo were fourth in this year’s GB Rowing Team Senior Team Trials men’s pair final.

World men’s eight champions Tom Ransley and Dan Ritchie – both men of Kent – return after injury to race in the second men’s four with Oliver Cook and Phil Congdon.

There are slots, too, for emerging talents. U23s Jack Beaumont and Angus Groom, fourth in the men’s quadruple scull at the World U23 Championships last season, will race as a second-ranked GB men’s double behind Jonny Walton and John Collins who themselves made a senior-level team debut with aplomb as a double in Serbia.

Meanwhile, the men’s quadruple scull who won a promising silver in Serbia will race in the same line-up of Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert. Alan Campbell, GB”s single sculler last week will miss Aiguebelette.

Charlotte Taylor will follow up her debut senior success in reaching the final of the lightweight women’s single in Serbia to race with 2013 World U23 Champion Eleanor Piggott in the lightweight double. They will form a second boat behind Imogen Walsh and Olympic Champion Kat Copeland who took bronze in Serbia.

There is also the welcome return of Ruth Walczak to full fitness. She will race in the lightweight women’s single scull. Walczak was a bronze medallist at the World Championships in 2013.

The European silver medal-winning lightweight men’s four combination of Mark Aldred, Peter and Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley will have another run-out against their Danish rivals amongst others.

The medal winning lightweight men’s pair of Jonno Clegg and Sam Scrimgeour and the light men’s double of Jamie Kirkwood and Will Fletcher are unchanged.

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PARA-ROWERS JOIN WORLD CUP STAGE

****GB Rowing Team para-rowers are supported by Guide Dogs****

Rowing is an integrated sport at its World Championships and GB Rowing Team Performance Director Sir David Tanner also has some new names on the block in his crews for the world cup.

Rachel Morris, a Paralympic hand-cycling champion, continues to make a smooth transition to rowing. She will make her first world cup appearance in the arms-shoulders single scull.

Tom Aggar, 2008 Paralympic Champion and 2012 finalist, continues in the equivalent men’s boat.

Grace Clough, from Nottingham RC, a former basketball player, has come through a tough selection process to win a seat in the mixed para-rowing coxed four to join 2013 World Champions Pamela Relph, Oliver Hester, James Fox and cox Oliver James. That means that Rose Linden is named as a reserve.

“It’s true to say that we have had a very tough selection battle for the seats in the four”, said GB Rowing Team Lead Coach for para-rowing Tom Dyson. “We are taking some pretty competitive crews with new faces and it will be exciting to see how they shape up against the rest of the World”.

This will be the only major competition for GB’s para-rowing crews before the World Championships in August.

Clough’s emergence into the squad is credit to a strong working relationship between the GB Rowing Team and the British Paralympic Association who run a series of “Sports Fests” through which Clough was identified into the sport.

BPA Director of Sport Penny Briscoe said: “Whilst Sports Fest is primarily about encouraging participation in disability sport at all levels, it is fantastic to learn that Rowing were able to identify such a talented athlete this way”.

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CREW LISTS (Includes club, home town, date of birth)

GB Rowing Team for the World Rowing Cup II
Aiguebelette, France, 20-22 June

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair – Boat 1

Helen Glover (Minerva Bath RC/Penzance/17.06.1986)/
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.1985)
Coaches: Robin Williams & Paul Thompson

Pair – Boat 2

Monica Relph (Leander Club/Cambridge/15.01.1988)/
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Oxford/28.03.1991)

Eight

Rosamund Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead/17.12.1988)/
Zoe Lee (Imperial College BC/Richmond, N. Yorks/15.12.1985)/
Jessica Eddie (London RC/Durham/07.10.1984)/
Donna Etiebet (Sport Imperial BC/London/29.04.1986)/
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.1982)/
Polly Swann (Leander Club/Edinburgh/15.06.1988)/
Caragh McMurty (Reading Univ BC/Southampton/22.08.1991)/
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.1984)/
Zoe de Toledo (cox) (Leander Club/London/17.07.1987)
Coach: James Harris

Double scull

Frances Houghton (Leander Club/Oxford/19.09.1980)
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.1987)
Coaches: Paul Thompson & Robin Williams

Quadruple scull

Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.1982)
Lucinda Gooderham (Leander Club/Norfolk/09.06.1984)
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.1987)
Victoria Meyer-Laker (Leander Club/Premnay/18.03.1988)
Coach: Nick Strange

OPEN

MEN

Pair

Matthew Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Campden/01.03.1989)/
Paul Bennett (Univ of London BC/Leeds/16.12.88)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Four – Boat 1

Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.1984)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.1988)/
George Nash (Molesey BC/Guildford/10.02.1989)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N. Yorks/03.03.1979)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Four – Boat 2

Oliver Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/05.06.1990)/
Phil Congdon (Molesey BC/Bury St Edmunds/06.06.1989)/
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Cambridge/16.09.85)/
Dan Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/16.01.87)
Coaches: Christian Felkel & Rob Dauncey

Eight

Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Lancaster/12.02.1988)
Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Inverness/16.10.1985)
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.1988)
Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.1983)
Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.1981)
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.1987)
Matthew Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Shepperton/11.07.1990)
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.1989)
Henry Fieldman (cox) (Imperial College BC/Barnes, London/25.11.1988)
Coaches: Christian Felkel & Rob Dauncey

Double scull – Boat 1

John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham/24.01.1989)/
Jonathan Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.1990)
Coach: Mark Banks

Double scull – Boat 2

Jack Beaumont(Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.93)/
Angus Groom (Leander Club/Glasgow/16.06.92)
Coach: Matthew Beechey

Quadruple scull

Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC/Preston/08.11.1988)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC/Reading/26.11.1985)/
Charles Cousins (Leander Club/Willingham/13.12.1988)/
Peter Lambert (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/03.12.1986)
Coach: Paul Stannard

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull

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

Double scull – Boat 1

Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.1984)/
Kat Copeland (Tees RC/Ashington/01.12.1990)
Coach: Paul Reedy

Double scull – Boat 2

Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Olney/16.05.91)/
Charlotte Taylor (Putney Town RC/Bedford/14.08.1985)
Coach: Tom Evens

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Pair

Jonathan Clegg (Leander Club/Maidenhead/14.07.1989)/
Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Forfar/28.01.1988)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Four

Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/14.03.1990)/
Mark Aldred (London RC/London/18.04.1987)/
Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.1985)/
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.1984)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Double scull

William Fletcher (Leander Club/Chester-le-Street/24.12.1989)
Jamie Kirkwood (Leander Club/Creswell/30.08.1989)
Coach: Darren Whiter

PARA-ROWING CREWS

MEN

Arms-only Single Scull (ASM1x)

Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/Maidenhead/24.05.1984)
Coach: Nick Baker

WOMEN

Arms-only single scull (ASW1x)

Rachel Morris (Guildford RC/Farnham/25.04.1970)
Coach: Nick Baker

MIXED

Legs-trunks-arms mixed coxed four (LTAMix4+)

Grace Clough (Nottingham RC/Sheffield/ 21.06.1991)/
Pamela Relph (Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)/
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: Tom Dyson

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FORWARD DIARY DATES: GB ROWING TEAM

June

Announcement of GB Para-Rowing crews for the World Cup, Caversham

20-22

World Cup II, Aiguebelette, France (includes para-rowing)

July

2-6

Henley Royal Regatta

12-13

World Cup III, Lucerne, Switzerland

17- NEW DATE (revised from 18th)

Announcement of GB Rowing Team crews for the World Championships – venue TBC

23-27

World U23 Championships, Varese, Italy

August

6-10

World Junior Championships, Hamburg, Germany

16-28

World Youth Olympic Games, Nanjing, China

24 – 31

World Championships, Amsterdam

September

13-14

World University Championships, Gravelines, France (U23s only)

October

19-20

British Championships

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THE GB ROWING TEAM is supported by the Lottery through UK Sport and has Science in Sport as a supplier. SAS Analytics is the Official Analytics Partner of British Rowing and the GB Rowing Team. The para-rowing squad is supported by Guide Dogs