GB Rowing Team names squad for World Championships in Aiguebelette
After European Championships and multiple world cup successes, the GB Rowing Team’s women’s pair and men’s eight headline the first wave of 2015 World Championships squad selections announced today.
The World Championships, running from August 30th – September 6th, doubles as the Olympic and Paralympic qualifying regatta.
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, the Olympic, World and European Champions, recently added a second world cup gold of the season in Lucerne, Switzerland.
The pair are coached by Robin Williams and Stanning said: “The project with Helen and Robin continues to excite me as we are still findings areas of our rowing to improve and ultimately getting faster”.
Matt Gotrel, Will Satch, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Mohamed Sbihi, Alex Gregory, George Nash, Constantine Louloudis and cox Phelan Hill also won in Lucerne – a second successive gold for the GB eight after a win in Varese. Hill will be doubly delighted with today’s call-up which falls on his 35th birthday.
After their Lucerne success Hill said: “Henley and Lucerne are all part of the journey. We are now looking forward to working hard and improving further at the training camps”. The close rivalry between this crew and Germany, the Olympic Champions, has been an on-going attraction this year.
European Champions Matt Langridge and James Foad, who won a barnstorming silver in Lucerne, are named in the men’s pair.
Alan Campbell has secured his place back as GB’s open single sculler on the back of continually improving performances this season which culminated in a bronze medal at the last world cup.
The women’s eight, twice bronze medallists this season, have underlined their racing pedigree. Katie Greves, Louisa Reeve, Jess Eddie, Donna Etiebet, Vicki Meyer-Laker, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Rosamund Bradbury, Zoe Lee and cox Zoe de Toledo have consistently challenged the world’s top boats this year so far and will be hoping to add further speed at the training camps.
After the Lucerne world cup Carnegie-Brown said: “We wanted this week to be about putting things into practice. i I think we did that when we needed to and now we can go away and build on that and come back and do it again at the World Championships”.
Today also sees the return of the 2014 World silver winning GB men’s quadruple scull who sat out Lucerne because of illness and injury in the crew. The good news is that Charles Cousins’ broken hand is now fixed and the crew is back to full training with Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert all named.
This quartet were World silver medallists in Amsterdam last August – missing out on gold by mere hundredths of a second. They also won GB ’s first World senior medal of all-time in this boat category when they took World bronze the previous year in Korea.
Townsend said: “We are all very pleased to be selected to press on and make sure we qualify the quad and push for top medals. It has been a slightly unusual season for us as a crew, having not raced in the complete line up all year, but we have confidence in our history and have kept the project progressing all year with the help of all of the squad. We can’t wait to get stuck in on training camp and get racing again at the worlds.”
GB’s two lightweight double scull crews are unchanged. Will Fletcher and Richard Chambers, a London 2012 silver medallist in the light four, will race the men’s event after two podium finishes to date.
Chambers said: “This season so far has been an exciting one for us. We are progressing well and are looking forward to getting our heads down in our up coming training camps.”
Olympic Champion Kat Copeland will race with Charlotte Taylor in the women’s event. Theirs has been a somewhat rollercoaster season so far, going from the heights of world cup gold and a world best time in Varese to just missing out on the podium in Lucerne. Imogen Walsh will race the lightweight single after winning silver in Lucerne.
2012 Olympic Champion Katherine Grainger, also three times an Olympic silver medallist from 2000-2008, continues her comeback season after two years out of the sport post-London 2012 with a 12th World Championships call-up since 1997. Her career medal tally at the Championships is already six golds, a silver and a bronze and she has never been outside the top seven having raced in five different boat categories.
This time she races in the open double scull with Vicky Thornley who won the GB Rowing Team trials this season. Thornley was GB’s single sculler in 2013 at the World Championships and, at London 2012, was part of the GB women’s eight who reached the Olympic final.
John Collins and Jonny Walton, finalists in Lucerne, are named in the equivalent men’s event. The duo made their international senior debut together only last season.
The open women’s quadruple scull of Melanie Wilson, Kristina Stiller, Frances Houghton and Jessica Leyden has been selected. The selectors believe this crew has the capacity to move on from an indifferent performance in Lucerne and will be looking to see them raise their game through the coming training camps.
There will also be a GB lightweight women’s quadruple scull crew in action. Emily Craig, Ruth Walczak, Brianna Stubbs and Ellie Piggott are all named today.
Jono Clegg has been selected in the lightweight men’s four following his strong performance in the pair in Lucerne and his role as sub in the double scull the following day with Richard Chambers. He joins Peter Chambers, Mark Aldred and Chris Bartley – this crew has been behind their game this season and will aim to step on over the next few weeks to improve their performance for the Worlds.
Joel Cassells, European Champion in the lightweight men’s pair in May, takes his place in the pair with Sam Scrimgeour. Jamie Kirkwood, winner of the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials in the single in April, is selected in this boat class.
The line-up of the men’s four, coxed pair and men’s sweep spares will be finalised over the next few weeks. There will be further testing for the rowers who raced in these boats in Lucerne, including the second-ranked GB men’s pair who were eighth in Lucerne.
In the Para-Rowing classes, Grace Clough, Dan Brown, Pamela Relph, James Fox and cox Oliver James are named unchanged in the mixed para-rowing coxed four. GB are reigning World Champions in this event and this crew set a World Best Time in winning gold at the Varese World Cup.
Relph said: “This season has been good and I am absolutely delighted to have broken the world best time at the world cup in Varese. Having been in the boat since I took up rowing in 2011, I feel a lot of pressure to keep the unbeaten streak going and the intensity at training reflects that. We are all training harder than we ever have and can’t wait to get to the World Championships and see how we fare against crews we haven’t seen so far this season. ”
They are joined by 2008 Paralympic Champion and 2014 World Silver medallist Tom Aggar, winner of bronze in Varese, in the arms-shoulders single scull for men. Rachel Morris, will race the equivalent women’s boat. She returned to action in Varese, after shoulder surgery earlier this year.
Laurence Whiteley has found his lonely training vigil of the part past two years rewarded with selection into the mixed trunk-arms double scull with Lauren Rowles. Whiteley has won international medals in a single but needed to find a female partner in order to be able to try to qualify, via these World Championships, for the Paralympic Games next summer in Rio.
Rowles has come into the squad in the past six months after a chance meeting with GB Rowing Team staff at Stoke Mandeville sports centre after which she requested a try-out. Rowles was previously a wheelchair track racer, having competed at the Commonwealth Games for England in the T53/54 1500m.
Two further boats are still under consideration for selection. We would like to select a women’s four to support this event at the Worlds and will decide this over the coming weeks.
We will also consider a lightweight men’s quadruple scull after the World Under 23 Championships.
CREW LIST
(Name/hometown/DOB)
WOMEN
Pair
Helen Glover (Minerva Bath RC/Penzance/17.06.86)
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85)
Coach: Robin Williams
Eight
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)
Louise Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)
Jessica Eddie (London RC/Durham/07.10.84)
Donna Etiebet (Sport Imperial/London/29.04.86)
Victoria Meyer-Laker (Leander Club/Premnay/18.03.88)
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Oxford/28.03.91)
Rosamund Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead/17.12.88)
Zoe Lee (Imperial College BC/Richmond/15.12.85)
Zoe de Toledo (Cox) (Leander Club/London/17.07.87)
Coach: James Harris
Double scull
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Glasgow/12.11.75)
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)
Coach: Paul Thompson
Quadruple Scull
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.87)
Frances Houghton (Univ of London Tyrian Club/Oxford/19.9.80)
Jessica Leyden (Leander Club/Todmorden/22.02.95)
Coach: Nick Strange
Sculling Spare
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)
OPEN
MEN
Pair
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)
Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)
Coach: Rob Dauncey
Coxed Pair / Four / Sweep Spares(2) from:
Oliver Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/05.06.90)
Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)
Stewart Innes (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/25.05.91)
Callum McBrierty (Leander Club/Edinburgh/13.08.92)
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Ashford/06.09.85)
Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)
Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Munlochy/16.10.85)
Matthew Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Shepperton/11.07.90)
Henry Fieldman (cox) (Molesey BC/Barnes/25.11.88)
M2+ Coach: John West
M4- Coach: Christian Felkel
Eight
Matt Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Campden/01.03.89)
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.89)
Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth/27.07.81)
Paul Bennett (Univ of London BC/Leeds/16.12.88)
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)
George Nash (Molesey BC/Guildford/02.10.89)
Constantine Louloudis (OUBC/London/15.09.91)
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler
Single Scull
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School/Coleraine/09.05.83)
Coach: John West
Double Scull
John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham/24.01.89)
Jonny Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.90)
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, Cambs, 13.12.88)
Peter Lambert (Leander Club/Maidenhead/03.12.86)
Coach: Paul Stannard
Sculling Spare
Angus Groom (Leander Club/Glasgow/16.06.92)
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Single scull
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)
Coach: Paul Reedy
Double Scull
Charlotte Taylor (Putney Town RC/Bedford/14.08.85)
Kat Copeland (Tees RC/Ingleby Barwick/01.12.90)
Coach: Paul Reedy
Quadruple Scull
Emily Craig (Univ of London BC/Mark Cross/30.11.92)
Ruth Walzcak (Molesey BC/Rochdale/15.09.88)
Brianna Stubbs (Wallingford RC/Poole/13.07.91)
Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Bedford/16.05.91)
Coach: Ben Reed
LIGHTWEIGHT
MEN
Pair
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/15.06.94)
Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Kirriemuir/28.01.88)
Coach: Rob Morgan
Four
Jono Clegg (Leander Club/Maidenhead/14.07.89)
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)
Mark Aldred (London RC/Birmingham/18.04.87)
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
Coach: Rob Morgan
Single Scull
Jamie Kirkwood (Leander Club/Cresswell/30.08.89)
Coach: Darren Whiter
Double Scull
Will Fletcher (Leander Club/Chester-le-Street/24.12.89)
Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)
Coach: Darren Whiter
PARA-ROWING
MIXED
Coxed four (LTA 4+)
Grace Clough (Nottingham RC/Sheffield/21.06.91)
Daniel Brown (Upper Thames BC/Reading/29.11.82)
Pamela Relph (Leander Club/Aylesbury/14.11.89)
James Fox (Univ of London/Peterborough/02.05.92)
Oliver James (cox) (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/05.01.90)
Coach: Tom Dyson
Trunk/-arms double scull (TA2x)
Laurence Whiteley (Tees RC/Northallerton/29.08.91)
Lauren Rowles (Marlow RC/Birmingham/ 24.04.98)
Coach: Nick Baker
MEN
Arms/-shoulders single scull (ASM 1x)
Tom Aggar (Marlow RC/Maidenhead/24.05.84)
Coach: Nick Baker
WOMEN
Arms/-shoulders single scull (ASW 1x)
Rachel Morris (Guildford RC/Farnham/25.04.79)
Coach: Tom Dyson
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