“It’s set up to be a very good Championship”
GB’s head coaches discuss training in Shanghai and look ahead to racing at the World Rowing Championships
As athletes prepare to start their World Championships bid, we caught up with the Women’s, Men’s and Paralympic head coaches to find out how training has been going and what we can look forward to over the coming days at the World Rowing Championships in Shanghai.
Having arrived a week ago, the athletes and support staff have settled in to life in China. With temperatures over 40 degrees for much of the training period, preparation has been vital to ensuring we’re in the best possible condition getting to the start line.
As Paul Stannard, Men’s Olympic Head Coach explained: “It was challenging at the start because it was incredibly hot, but thankfully, we’d done a lot of preparation, both in the UK, at Bisham Abbey, where we did some heat acclimatisation, and at our camp in Portugal which was over 44 degrees on the first few days. So we were ready for the heat, and the support staff did a very good job when we got here with cold drinks, ice vests and everything else that we needed.”
He added, “This is a brilliant course in terms of how everything’s laid out, and the water itself is really good. So I think it’s set up to be a very good Championship. In terms of the racing, there are a lot of unknowns because people have arrived at different times – some nations only arrived a couple of days ago whereas we arrived around ten days before racing, so we’ll wait and see with the first races to get a better idea of how it’s going to go!”
While the races officially start in the early hours of Sunday morning, the reserve races were completed on Saturday. As Andrew Randell, Women’s Olympic Head Coach says: “To us, racing has already started with the reserves races today. The reserves are very important, they provide the upward pressure on the squad and vital support during race days. As a squad, the mood is great and we’re all eager to race. We’ve prepared well, we’re doing a good job, so I think we’ll be pretty strong.”
As for the race to watch, in Andrew’s eyes, it’s “the Women’s single. But I’m biassed as I’m coaching Lauren Henry and she’s been having a good season. But I think there will be some great races across the board!”
Nicola Benavente, Paralympic Head Coach has been impressed with the planning and the set up in China. “Everyone’s been very helpful, the hotel is nice and the course is good. It was very warm, so we were glad to have done some of the acclimatisation work back home, but I think we’re well prepared and coming out early gave us a chance to settle in and figure out how it all works.”
She added: “We’re looking forward to racing now. We’re only a couple of days out and that always changes the mood, but everyone’s excited for it and maybe slightly impatient! We’re not sure what to expect as it’s the first year of the cycle and there are new athletes coming in so it’s going to be good to see where everyone is at. I’m looking forward to seeing all the races, but the PR3 doubles will be one to watch. There’s a big entry and it’s still a fairly new event with lots of new athletes and some returners from Paris. Overall we could see some records being broken if the conditions here are right.”
Racing is from 21-28 September and will be live streamed on WorldRowing.com. You can also follow the GB Rowing Team instagram for daily updates from China.
