Men’s quad and eight into the final in Italy

Topping their heats, the Olympic Champion women’s pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning and the men’s quadruple scull of Angus Groom, Sam Townsend, Graeme Thomas and Peter Lambert gave the GB Rowing Team an early kick start at the world cup in Varese, Italy.

The quad’s early morning win put them into Sunday’s final and they will be joined there by the GB men’s eight who nailed their heat in style to win in 5:25.47 to close out the morning session of racing whilst the women’s pair move into the semi-finals.

“Obviously there are a lot of new crews here that we haven’t raced yet but it felt cracking out there. Everyone was working hard to deliver the result”, said Thomas of the men’s quad.

This morning also saw big margins of victory for the lightweight women’s double scull of European Champions Kat Copeland and Charlotte Taylor and for European light men’s double silver medallists Richard Chambers and Will Fletcher to carry them into semi-finals, too.

The two GB open weight doubles were both second to secure their passage into the next stage. This was a promising opener from Jonny Walton and John Collins who missed out on the European final three weeks ago whilst Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley were beaten by the reigning World bronze medallists and world best time holders from Australia.

Joel Cassells, Peter Chambers, Mark Aldred and Chris Bartley sprinted strongly to the finish of their lightweight men’s four but had run out of room to catch the French. The performance was still good enough to see them to the semi-finals.

Alan Campbell and Jack Beaumont progressed to this afternoon’s quarter-finals. Beaumont could have been forgiven for feeling star-truck as he was drawn alongside the Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale who ultimately won.

Repechages now await the women’s eight – who produced an outstanding heat to place second only to the World and Olympic Champions from the USA – the men’s four and the GB second-ranked women’s and men’s lightweight doubles and open pairs.

Across the board, the performance was seen as positive. “We have had some strong results today but as we had expected the world standard is very high. We are in there fighting with more still to do in the next two days”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Diretor, Sir David Tanner.

This afternoon’s repechages will be followed by repechages and semi-finals of the para-rowing classes with both Tom Aggar and Rachel Morris in single scull action.

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RACE BACKGROUND

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning seemed dwarfed by the majesty of the broad lake and mountain scene around them – so familiar to them from GB Rowing Team training camps here – as they opened the racing account for GB today.

But these are big names in the sport and they weren’t going to be caught napping in the opening women’s pair heat of the season’s second world cup, taking first place in a time of 7:13.67 and leading through every stage of the race with France and Italy in second and third.

A closer race came in the second heat, featuring Felice Mueller and Eleanor Logan of the USA, world champions in the eight, and Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler of New Zealand. in which international senior debutants and development rowers Karen Bennett and Rebecca Chin were fourth to go into the repechage.

New Zealand were leading to the 1000m mark before the Americans came through to take the verdict by just over a second at the line. Mid-race only a whisker separated the crews.

Calum McBrierty and Mat Tarrant were next in action in the men’s pair. They are the second-ranked GB pair but the lone GB contender here as Foad and Langridge have been sidelined temporarily by a slight niggle. They were third at the 500m marker but dropped back into fourth and despite a quick finish could not snatch a semi-final qualifying spot and go into the repechage.

The GB men’s quad with Angus Groom in for the injured Charles Cousins edged into a slender lead just beyond the 500m and held that through the halfway despite the close attention of the host nation and Canada.

In the third quarter the GB boat had half a length over the Canadians in second as Italy dropped back. That margin dropped to a canvas before the GB boat applied the power and moved ahead to take the win in 5:44.02 from Canada in second and Switzerland in the third.

John Collins and Jonny Walton made a good start to their men’s double scull heat and were tracking the German leaders, Marcel Hacker and Stephan Krueger, the European Champions.

Hacker, of course is a veteran of the single scull in which he has been a World Champion but the GB duo were determined to hang onto their coat-tails to gain the all-important second qualifying position for tomorrow’s semi-finals in 6:21.10 ahead of Poland.

Olympic Champion Katherine Grainger and Vicky Thornley, racing in reversed seat order from the Europeans where they won bronze, moved into an early lead in their women’s double scull heat. They were a second up on Australia with Denmark in third at the 500m timing point.

Australia made a move in the second quarter and took the lead in lane five. Sally Kehoe and Olympia Alderney, who set a world’s best time at last year’s World Championships in Amsterdam, continued to lead through halfway and beyond to win in 6:52.11 to GB’s 6:55.90. Neither crew had to press hard in the final 250m with both knowing they were safely into the semis ahead of Denmark.

Alan Campbell, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, must have been raring to race today after a long break caused by injury.

This was his first world cup race since Lucerne in July of 2014 and he was drawn against Damir Martin of Croatia who set a world’s best time in Poznan at the Europeans.

Today it was Dani Fridman of Israel who took the early lead before being overhauled latterly by Martin. Campbell looked relatively comfortable as he came home in 6:57.79 knowing there is a quarter-final now to race this afternoon.

Jack Beaumont, a European bronze medallist in the quad a few weeks ago, is racing here in the single as the second-ranked GB entry. Beaumont was in the thick of the action in the lane next door to Mahe Drysdale, the Olympic Champion from New Zealand. With 1500m gone, Beaumont had moved up into second ahead of the Brazilian newcomer Steve Hlestand and at the end he had a slight overlap on Drysdale to move into the quarters.

2012 Olympic silver medalist Richard Chambers and Will Fletcher produced a great opening phase in their lightweight men’s double scull heat to lead by over four seconds from New Zealand at 500m and by four and a half from the USA at halfway.

They extended that lead in the second half proving their continuing potential for success despite being a new combination this year.

Zak Lee Green and Sam Mottram are a newly-minted GB crew and brought together for a tilt at senior level for the first time as a second-ranked GB light double as well as with an eye on future development. Mottram raced at the World U23s here last year and Zak Lee Green has been plying his trade more recent in the lightweight single.

With only one place available to move into the semi-final, Lee Green and Mottram were soon out of contention behind the leading Italians. They were lying fifth for the first half before moving up to fourth but still ahead of the reigning Olympic Champions Mads Rasmussen and Rasmus Quist at the end. They now race a repechage this afternoon.

New Zealand led the British duo of Eleanor Piggott and Imogen Walsh in the first of two lightweight women’s doubles heats featuring GB crews. The Kiwis pulled out to a bigger lead in the second half and went onto win. GB were second and will now race a repechage having clawed back on the Kiwi crew considerably by the finish.

In the ensuing heat, the top-ranked British boat of Kat Copeland and Charlotte Taylor, the European Champions, moved out early to lead their race and broached no challenge from there to win by more than 10 seconds.

The British lightweight men’s four here is formed of Joel Cassells, Peter Chambers, Mark Aldred and Chris Bartley. Cassells and Chambers have joined the crew since the Europeans. Today the new-look line-up left themselves a little too much to do in the second half, despite a sprint to the finish, and were second to France but they still move into the semi-finals.

Alan Sinclair, Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell, Tom Ransley and Scott Durant, the European Champions, were involved in a tight race with the USA and Belarus from the outset. GB had the early lead, Belarus then took it before the USA grabbed it at the halfway mark.

Two seconds now separated the British from the USA and the Americans built on that lead to take the only qualifying place for the final on Sunday. The British quartet now race a repechage tomorrow afternoon, having dropped back to a close fourth in the final surge to the line.

A swift start saw the GB women’s quadruple scull take the lead as their heat got underway and the breeze picked up on the post-noon scene in Varese. Australia, acute to the danger, took up the challenge and the USA were quick to respond to move up into second with GB now in 3rd at the 500m mark.

Melanie Wilson, Tina Stiller, Beth Rodford and Jess Leyden were still very much in contention but needed to keep pace to claim one of two available qualifying spots for Sunday’s final. At halfway they had slipped back to fourth which is where they finished in 6:18.78 and will race a repechage tomorrow. At the head of the field China mounted a serious challenge to the Americans but lost out by just two hundredths of a second with Australia in third.

Katie Greves, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Jess Eddie, Donna Etiebet, Vicky Meyer-Laker, Louisa Reeve, Rosamund Bradbury, Zoe Lee and Zoe de Toledo also got a strong start to lead the Olympic and World Champions from the USA for the first 500m. They held that lead to halfway before the USA made a big move to take a narrow lead and go on to win.

Whilst the result on paper consigned the GB crew to the repechage, there is no doubt that this will have been a confidence boosting performance and one which certainly put down a marker for the potential of this crew.

Poland, Germany and GB raced in closely-packed group for the early part of today’s men’e eight heat until the British emerged to create a lead and then build on it. In the second half they dominated to take the win in 5:25.47.

TIMETABLE

Today’s repechages and quarter-finals start at 14.00 UK time with para-rowing starting at 16.00.

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RESULTS
(Events featuring GB Rowing Team crews only. For full results – www.worldrowing.com)

RESULTS

(Events featuring GB Rowing Team crews only. For full results – www.worldrowing.com)

HEATS

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair – Heat 1
1. Helen Glover/Heather Stanning (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:13.67
2. Noemie Kober/Marie Le Nepvou (France) 7:19.38
3. Alessandra Patelli/Gaia Palma (Italy) 7:22.83
4. Karla Milosevic/Marcela Milosevic (Croatia) 7:28.31
5. Dolores Amaya/Oriana Ruiz (Argentina) 7:42.22

Pair – Heat 2
1. Felice Mueller/Eleanor Logan (USA) 7:01.41
2. Grace Prendergast/Kerri Gowler (New Zealand) 7:02.58
3. Anna Wierzbowska/Maria Wierzbowska (Poland) 7:14.35
4. Karen Bennett/Becca Chin (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:26.35
5. Ilaria Broggini/Veronica Calarese (Italy) 7:51.41

Eight – Heat 1
1. USA 5:55.54
2. Katie Greves/Olivia Carnegie-Brown/Jess Eddie/Donna Etiebet/Vicki Meyer-Laker/Louisa Reeve/Rosamund Bradbury/Zoe Lee/Zoe De Toledo (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:56.65
3. Australia 6:04.34
4. New Zealand 6:06.85

Double sculls – Heat 2
1. Olympia Aldersley/Sally Kehoe (Australia) 6:52.11
2. Katherine Grainger/Vicky Thornley (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:55.90
3. Mette Petersen/Lisbet Jakobsen (Denmark) 7:02.24
4. Helene Lefebvre/Elodie Ravera-Scaramozzino (France) 7:04.65
5. Birgit Puehringer/Lisa Farthofer (Austria) 7:14.70

Quadruple sculls – Heat 2
1. Grace Latz/Tracy Eisser/Amanda Elmore/Adrienne Martelli (USA) 6:12.69
2. Weiwei Zhu/Xiaoxing Shen/Yang Lyu/Yuwei Wang (China) 6:12.71
3. Jessica Hall/Jennifer Cleary/Kerry Hore/Madeleine Edmunds (Australia) 6:13.99
4. Melanie Wilson/Tina Stiller/Beth Rodford/Jess Leyden (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:18.78
5. Tina Christmann/Anne Beenken/Carina Boehlert/Julia Leiding (Germany) 6:30.72

OPEN

MEN

Pair – Heat 1
1. Jack Hargreaves/Nicholas Wheatley (Australia) 6:30.18
2. Dariush Aghai/Ross James (USA) 6:32.77
3. Giovanni Abagnale/Vincenzo Abbagnale (Italy) 6:34.09
4. Matthew Tarrant/Callum McBriertey (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:36.32
5. Markus Kessler/David Aregger (Switzerland) 6:51.36

Four – Heat 2
1. Glenn Ochal/Charles Cole/Henrik Rummel/Seth Weil (USA) 5:49.33
2. Vadzim Lialin/Dzianis Mihal/Mikalai Sharlap/Ihar Pashevich (Belarus) 5:53.15
3. Manuel Suarez Barrios/Javier Concepcion Hernandez/Adrian Oquendo Ibanez/Solaris Freire Cardero (Cuba) 5:53.86
4. Alan Sinclair/Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell/Tom Ransley/Scott Durant (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:54.03
5. George Howard/Alexander Bardoul/Robert Kells/Anthony Allen (New Zealand) 5:56.03
6. Piotr Hojka/Ryszard Ablewski/Konrad Wojewodzic/Wojciech Gutorski (Poland) 6:07.27

Eight – Heat 2
1. Matt Gotrel/Stewart Innes/Pete Reed/Paul Bennett/Mohamed Sbihi/Alex Gregory/George Nash/Will Satch/Henry Fieldman (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:25.47
2. Poland 5:30.23
3. Germany II 5:35.26
4. China 5:47.94

Single scull – Heat 2
1. Damir Martin (Croatia) 6:54.36
2. Dani Fridman (Israel) 6:55.67
3. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:57.79
4. Brian Rosso (Argentina) 7:03.74
5. Ganggang Li (China) 7:10.21

Single scull – Heat 3
1. Mahe Drysdale (New Zealand) 6:53.44
2. Jack Beaumont (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:55.15
3. Sverri Nielsen (Denmark) 6:56.57
4. Steve Hiestand (Belgium) 6:57.17
5. Pascal Lussier (Canada) 6:58.58

Double sculls – Heat 2
1. Marcel Hacker/Stephan Krueger (Germany) 6:18.45
2. John Collins/Jonny Walton (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:21.10
3. Dominik Czaja/ Maciej Zawojski (Poland) 6:29.67
4. Frank Steffensen/Sophus Johannesen (Denmark) 6:38.09
5. Julius Hirtzberger/Ciemens Obrecht (Austria) 6:47.23

Quadruple sculls – Heat 2
1. Angus Groom/Sam Townsend/Graeme Thomas/Peter Lambert (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:44.02
2. Matthew Buie/Julien Bahain/Will Dean/Rob Gibson (Canada) 5:45.20
3. Nico Stahlberg/Barnabe Delarze/Augustin Maillefer/Roman Roeoesli (Switzerland) 5:47.26
4. Laifu Li/Zhiyu Liu/Dang Liu/Quan Zhang (China) 5:49.51
5. Simone Venier/Luca Rambaldi/Mario Paonessa/Paolo Perino (Italy) 5:57.58
6. Hannes Redenius/Steven Weidner/Kai Fuhrmann/Max Appel (Germany) 6:00.06

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double sculls – Heat 2
1. Sophie Mackenzie/Julia Edward (New Zealand) 6:54.69
2. Ellie Piggott/Imogen Walsh (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:57.44
3. Weronika Deresz/Martyna Mikolajczak (Poland) 7:09.91
4. Camille Leclerc/Laura Tarantola (France) 7:12.75
5. Eleonora Trivella/Valentina Rodini (Italy) 7:15.35
6. Maria Clara Rohner/Milka Kraljev (Argetina) 7:22.04

Double sculls – Heat 3
1. Kat Copeland/Charlotte Taylor (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:56.72
2. Guilia Pollini/Elisabetta Sancassani (Italy) 7:07.56
3. Ricky Nencini/Daniela Nachazelova (Czech Republic) 7:08.21
4. Sara Lambing/Leonie Pless (Austria) 7:08.67
5. Kanako Ueda/Shoko Ueno (Japan) 7:11.23

MEN

Four – Heat 1
1. Thibault Colard/Guillaume Raineau/Thomas Baroukh/Franck Solforosi (France) 5:52.67
2. Joel Cassells/Peter Chambers/Mark Aldred/Chris Bartley (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:53.77
3. Martino Goretti/Livio La Padula/Stefano Oppo/Alberto Di Seyssel (Italy 1) 5:56.86
4. Brendan Hodge/Eric Woelfl/Maxwell Lattimer/Nicolas Pratt (Canada) 6:07.93
5. Osamu Suyama/Masato Kobayashi/Makoto Ishita/Toshiki Sugishima (Japan) 6:11.29
6. Paolo Di Girolamo/Guido Gravina/Petru Zaharia/Giorgio Tuccinardi (Italy 2) 6:21.85

Double sculls – Heat 1
1. Andrea Micheletti/Pietro Ruta (Italy) 6:17.22
2. Artur Mikolajczewski/Milosz Jankowski (Poland) 6:24.75
3. Hideki Omoto/Hiroshi Nakano (Japan) 6:26.43
4. Zak Lee-Green/Samuel Mottram (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:28.12
5. Nicolai Fernandez/Pablo Lizondo (Argentina) 6:35.40
6. Mads Rasmussen/Rasmus Quist (Denmark) 7:10.43

Double sculls – Heat 4
1. Richard Chambers/Will Fletcher (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:16.48
2. Andrew Campbell Jr/Joshua Konieczny (USA) 6:21.53
3. Peter Taylor/Hayden Cohen (New Zealand) 6:30.28
4. Yuta Hamada/Takahiro Suda (Japan) 6:39.44
5. Mariusz Stanczuk/Lukasz Siemion (Poland) 6:49.68

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CREW LISTS (Includes club, home town, date of birth)
GB Rowing Team for World Cup 11,
Varese, Italy 19-21 June, 2015

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair – two boats

Helen Glover (Minerva Bath RC/Penzance/17.06.86)
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85)
Coach: Robin Williams

Rebecca Chin ( (Agecroft RC/Deganwy/11.12.91))
Karen Bennett
Caoach: Robin Williams

Eight

Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Oxford/28.03.91)
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)
Louise Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)
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

Jessica Leyden (Leander Club/Todmorden/22.02.95)
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.87)
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)
Coach: Nick Strange

Women’s Spare

Karen Bennett (Leander Club/Edinburgh/05.02.89)

OPEN

MEN

Pair

Mat Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Shepperton/11.07.90)
Calum McBrierty (Leander Club/Edinburgh/13.08.92)
Coach: Rob Dauncey

Four

Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Munlochy/16.10.85)
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Univ of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Ashford/06.09.85)
Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)
Coach: Christian Felkel

Eight

Matt Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Campden/01.03.89)
Stewart Innes (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/20.05.91)
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)
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.89)
Henry Fieldman (cox) (Molesey BC?Barnes/25.11.88)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Single Scull – two boats

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.93)
Coach: John West

Double Scull

Jonny Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.90)
John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham/24.01.89)
Coach: Mark Banks

Quadruple Scull

Angus Groom (Leander Club/Glasgow/16.06.92)
Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC/Reading/26.11.85)
Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC/Preston/08.11.88)
Peter Lambert (Leander Club/Maidenhead/03.12.86)
Coach: Paul Stannard

Men’s Spare

Oliver Cook (Univ of London/Windsor/05.06.90)

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double Scull – two boats

Kat Copeland (Tees RC/Ingleby Barwick/01.12.90)
Charlotte Taylor (Putney Town RC/Bedford/14.08.85)
Coach: Paul Reedy

Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Olney/16.05.91)
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)
Coach: Paul Reedy

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Pair

Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Kirriemuir/28.01.88)
Jonathan Clegg (Leander Club/Maidenhead/14.07.89)

Coach: Rob Morgan

Four

Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/15.06.94)
Mark Aldred (London RC/Birmingham/18.04.87)
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Double Scull – two boats

Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)
Will Fletcher (Leander Club/Chester-le-Street/24.12.89)
Coach: Darren Whiter

Zak Lee-Green (Agecroft RC/Cardiff/05.02.91)
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/14.11.94)*
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/05.10.90)

Coach: Tom Dyson

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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