Partridge out for Henley and Lucerne

Just when it looked as if the Great Britain squad –  announced today for the third and final 2007 world cup due to take place in Lucerne, Switzerland, from July 13-15 – would have a more familiar look to it than the line-up which raced in Amsterdam ten days ago, news has come through that Alex Partridge, of the world champion men’s four, has a knee injury which has ruled him out of Henley and will rule him out of Lucerne.

After their gold-medal winning foray into the men’s eight event, the Camelot-backed and world champion men’s four – featuring Steve Williams, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Andy Hodge – were due back in action in their "main" event but now race with a sub for Partridge.

Jurgen Grobler, the men’s Chief Coach, will not upset the line up of the other two men’s sweep boats, the Siemens-backed pair and eight, who face their final selection test at Lucerne for this year’s World Championships and Olympic Qualifying Regatta in Munich in August.  So Tom James, ninth in the pair in Amsterdam and sixth in the same class at the 2006 worlds will step up as a sub in the four for Lucerne.

"Of course, this is not the best of news at this time of the season but we hope to have Alex back in full training at the first of our pre-worlds camps in late July", said GB Performance Director David Tanner today.

Meanwhile there is a more settled look to the rest of the squad. Matthew Wells and Stephen Rowbotham, winners at the season’s  opening world cup in Linz, Austria, and silver medallists behind Estonia 10 days ago,are now established amongst the best crews in the world in this event. Backed by Siemens, they will be looking to improve with every race in Lucerne in the lead-up to the world championships in Munich.  The medical experts are hopeful that a slight injury worry for Wells, which has kept him out of Henley this week, should respond to treatment in time for the world cup finals.

Colin Smith and Matt Langridge, also part of the Amsterdam-winning eight, will race the world cup final in the Siemens-sponsored men’s pair. This new combination won gold in Linz but, as for many other crews,the opposition in Lucerne should be some of the stiffest yet.

Alan Campbell, a finalist in Amsterdam in a field which contained the world champion and silver medallist as well as the world cup leader and the Olympic champion, will relish the opportunity to race again in the hotly-contested men’s single scull event.

Meanwhile Tom Solesbury, James’ pairs partner in Amsterdam, steps into the men’s eight in place of Hugo Lee.  Solebsury raced in the 2006 eight which finished fifth at Eton and is returning to form after a difficult winter of injury.

The GB men’s squad eight produced one of its best performances of the season in Amsterdam to take the bronze medal and will be seeking to continue to improve.

The women’s quadruple scull, also world champions and backed by Camelot, and including Katherine Grainger, Frances Houghton, Debbie Flood and Annie Vernon, will be seek to bounce back after their defeat at the hands of China in Amsterdam.

Lucerne’s fabled Rotsee Lake looks set, meanwhile, to witness the first races this season from Anna Bebington and Elise Laverick in the Siemens-sponsored women’s double scull. Bebington, overall world cup winner in this event last year with Annie Vernon, and Olympic bronze medallist Laverick have been sidelined so far by injury to Bebington.

Natasha Page will race in the women’s pair with Natasha Howard in Lucerne because Alison Knowles is injured.  Knowles has been named in the women’s eight – a boat class in which GB were fifth in Amsterdam, after winning silver in Linz.

Zac Purchase, meanwhile, has had some unusual preparation for this regatta.  His partner, in the Siemens-backed lightweight men’s double scull, Mark Hunter, has missed some days of training through sickness – as has Debbie Flood in the women’s quadruple scull.  So Purchase has been training with the women’s quadruple scull under the watchful eye of Paul Thompson – the aptly-titled head coach for women and lightweights.

The lightweight squad produced some excellent results in Amsterdam, including silver for Hunter and Purchase as well as for the lightweight men’s four.  Both crews will race in the same formation in Lucerne as will Hester Goodsell and Helen Casey who were finalists ten days ago in the lightweight women’s double scull.

In the international (non-Olympic) classes Andrea Dennis and Alasdair Leighton-Crawford will both contest the lightweight single scull events and there will be lightweight men’s and women’s quadruple sculls whilst Dan Harte and Matthew Beechey enter the regatta with confidence after winning gold in Amsterdam in the lightweight men’s pair. There will also be a women’s four featuring Vicky Etiebet, from the 2006 women’s eight.

Great Britain will also  race an under-23 double of Bill Lucas and Charles Cousins in the Lucerne regatta. This will be part of the continued build-up to the World U23 Championships in Strathclyde later this year. Lucas and Cousins are graduates of the ARA’s World Class Start Programme, sponsored by Siemens.

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GB CREWS FOR THIRD WORLD CUP OF 2007
(Lucerne, July 13-15 )
(NB – listed from bow to stroke with
athlete name followed by club, home town
and date of birth in brackets).

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair – two boats

Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.4.85)
Natasha Howard (Tideway Scullers/West Runton/3.9.80)

Four

Rebecca Rowe/Vicki Etiebet/Vicky Myers/Alice Freeman

Eight

Baz Moffat (Thames RC/Bradford/8.4.78)/Carla Ashford (Thames
RC/Northallerton/13.3.79)/Georgina Menheneott (Mortlake,Anglian & Alpha RC/North Bradley, Wilts /18.12.78)/Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/7.10.84)/Beth Rodford (Thames RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.3.82)/Katie Greves (Uni of London/Oxford/2.9.82)/Louisa Reeve (Leander/…./16.05.84)/Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes/Ealing/25.4.83)

Double scull

Elise Laverick (Thames RC/Poling, W.Sussex/27.7.75)/Anna Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.2.83)

Quadruple scull

Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Leeds/27.2.80)/Annie Vernon (Thames RC/Wadebridge/1.9.82)/Fran Houghton(Uni of  London/Oxford/19.9.80)/Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

MEN

Pair – two boats

Colin Smith (Leander/Henley on Thames/3.9.83)/Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.5.83)

Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.9.82)
/James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/1.4.84)

Four

Steve Williams (Leander Club/Cheltenham/15.4.76)/Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.7.81)/Tom James (CUBC/Wrexham/11.3.84)/Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/3.8.79)

Eight

Tom Parker (OUBC/Winchester/24.10.82)
Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.9.80)
Tom Lucy Oxford Brookes/Monmouth/1.5.88)
Tom Stallard (Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.9.78)
Josh West (Leander/Santa Fe/25.3.77)
Richard Egington (Leander/Knutsford/26.2.79)
Robin Bourne-Taylor (Army RC/Oxford/22.7.81)
Alastair Heathcote (Army RC/London/18.8.77)
Acer Nethercott (OUBC/Harlow/28.11.77)

Single Scull

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/9.5.83)

Double Scull – two boats

Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.4.79)/Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)

Second boat – see U23 section below

Quadruple scull

Simon Fieldhouse (Molesey/Thames Ditton/4.9.76)/Sam Townsend (Reading Uni/Reading/26.11.85)/Alex Gregory (Reading Uni/Wormington/11.3.84)/Ian Lawson (Leander/Otley, W.Yorks/4.3.77)

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Single scull

Andrea Dennis (Wallingford RC/Oxford/03.01.82)

Double scull

Helen Casey (Wallingford RC/Oxford/6.2.74)/
Hester Goodsell (Rob Roy/Cambridge/27.6.84)

Quadruple scull

Laura Greenhalgh/Jane Hall (Leander/Caversham/
20.10.73), Mathilde Pauls (Imperial College BC/Berlin & Putney/26.09.83)/ Sophie Hosking (Durham Uni/Wimbledon/25.01.86)

MEN

Pair

Matt Beechey (Leander/Worcester/3.4.77)/Daniel
Harte (London/Edinburgh/12.12.75)

Four

Richard Chambers (Oxford Brookes/Coleraine/10.6.85)/ James Lindsay-Fynn (London/Trim/29.9.75)/Paul Mattick (Wallingford/Oxford/25.4.78)/James Clarke (London RC/London/13.12.84)

Single scull

Alasdair Leighton-Crawford (Tideway Scullers/Richmond-upon-Thames/09.12.81)

Double scull

Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/2.5.86)/Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/1.7.78)

Quadruple scull
Chris Bartley/Simon Jones/Rob Williams/Dave Currie

UNDER-23 CREWS

OPEN

MEN

Double scull – competing in senior open event

Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.9.87)/Charles Cousins (Rob Roy/Willingham, Cambs/13.12.88)