GB Rowing Team for World Championships 2009

July 16, 2009

The GB Rowing Team is sponsored by Siemens and supported by Lottery funding*.

57 rowers in 16 boats have made the list in Olympic and International classes whilst eight adaptive (Paralympic class) rowers have been selected in three boats, including Paralympic single scull champion, Tom Aggar.

The GB Rowing Team, in this post-Olympic season of transition, is likely to face strong opposition from the Germans, New Zealanders and Australians in particular, but also potentially from Canada, France and Italy.

GB Rowing’s Performance Director, David Tanner said: “We have had some good successes this summer but have taken this season as a time to try some new things, especially with our leading players who have been challenged this year on the world stage. “We have also blooded some young and new athletes who need to learn the demands of toughness of Olympic-level racing. This has not been an easy season but I believe that it is laying a good basis for our Olympic campaign”.

Men’s chief coach Jurgen Grobler has continued with Andrew Triggs Hodge and Pete Reed in the men’s pair and they will face a difficult task if they are to beat the New Zealanders who have defeated them four times already this season. “We know that the New Zealanders have been quicker than us so far this season. That will give us the motivation during a ruthless series of training camps coming up now”, said Reed.

The British men’s four of Alex Partridge, Ric Egington, Alex Gregory and Matt Langridge, has been in good form throughout the world cup season and last weekend performed superbly to take gold in the final at the Lucerne world cup and, with it, the overall world cup leaders trophy for their boat class.

GB Rowing has today named ten rowers who will form a squad for the men’s eight. The feature of this boat in 2009 has been its youth with some new, young rowers emerging in an exciting project.

Alan Campbell will be a strong medal contender in the men’s single scull after world cup gold and silver earlier this season. He will be looking to put the drama of the Olympic Games year, in which he required knee surgery after contracting an infection, behind him.

Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham, bronze medallists in Beijing, were ruled out of Lucerne by illness after qualifying for the final. They should be in the main fray in Poland in what can be one of the most competitive boat classes on the circuit.

Poznan could prove the place for a significant step up from the men’s quadruple scull of Sam Townsend, Bill Lucas, Marcus Bateman and Charles Cousins who just missed out on Olympic qualification for Beijing. They have run the Olympic champions close twice this season and continue to grow in racing experience, racing to a superb silver medal in Lucerne behind Germany.

This crew is based on four athletes, two of whom are still U23s, who have emerged from GB Rowing’s talent scheme – the World Class Start Scheme which is sponsored by Siemens and backed by the lottery – and their racing has been fired by a significant determination to learn and improve this year.

Katherine Grainger, coached by Paul Thompson, chief coach for women and lightweights, is named in the single scull today. Grainger, three times an Olympic silver medallist in crew boats, chose to race this boat class after winning the GB trials in April and has enjoyed the new challenge but appreciates the progress to be made if she is to challenge for a medal in Poznan.

Anna Bebington and Annabel Vernon, in the women’s double scull, have been in the medal zone throughout the year and should be a crew to fear in Poznan – despite illness ruling Vernon out of Lucerne.

Olivia Whitlam and Louisa Reeve, virtually unknown as a pair a year ago, have since reached the Olympic final and picked up world cup medals in both the eight and the pair so far this season. In Poznan they will concentrate on the pair alone.

The GB women’s eight, like the men’s line-up, is likely to feature some new, young rowers as GB Rowing builds its Olympic strategy. They will compete alongside more experienced rowers like Jess Eddie and Natasha Page and seasoned cox, Caroline O’Connor. GB Rowing has today announced that ten rowers will form this “eight” squad with two of the ten names still be finalised and likely to come from the U23 squad.

Great Britain has been developing a new women’s quadruple scull this season. Sarah Cowburn, a former world junior single scull finalist, and Ro Bradbury are still U23s and have stepped up to the senior challenge with one world cup medal already this year. They join Katie Greves and Beth Rodford who have made the switch from sweep (single oar each) to sculling (two oars each) this year.

Britain’s lightweight men’s squad has had a new look and feel this season while the lightweight women Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell have been grabbing the headlines. They stormed into the field to win GB’s first female lightweight world cup gold in Munich and went on to win again in Lucerne, taking the overall world cup title with the victory. The duo, hope to continue to make history in Poznan, although other nations – not yet seen this year – will enter the fray there.

Beijing Olympic gold medallists Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter have been absent from the men’s squad – the former because of a virus and the latter because of a break from racing to take up a coaching post in California. Both intend to return to the GB fold next season. Paul Mattick and Rob Williams have stepped into Hunter and Purchase’s double scull shoes and acquitted themselves well even if a world cup medal has eluded them so far. More time in the boat together at training camp will assist their development.

And the GB lightweight men’s four has been totally fresh to the world cup scene. Stroked by Bob Hewitt and featuring Stephen Feeney, Chris Boddy and Chris Bartley, the quartet have been world cup finalists at each round. Hewitt and Boddy are both still U23s and products of GB Rowing’s talent scheme.

In International Classes – the non-Olympic boat categories offered at the World Championships – GB is set to race a lightweight women’s quadruple scull with the experienced Jane Hall on board as well as GB trials finalists Laura Greenhalgh and Andrea Dennis and newcomer Stephanie Cullen.

Adam Freeman-Pask, winner of world cup medals already this season, will race the lightweight single scull once more after contesting the event in 2008.

Great Britain also fields a strong adaptive squad in Poznan in three of the four Paralympic classes. This squad has made a superb start to the season winning three golds in Munich at the world cup.

Tom Aggar, Paralympic champion in the men’s arms and shoulders single scull (AS1x), leads this squad. He has already won world cup gold in Munich this season and took victory in the Varese International regatta. He is unbeaten so far in 2009.

Newcomer Sam Scowen is named in the trunk and arms double scull (TAMix2x) with Beijing Olympian James Roberts. This is a boat class in which GB has made significant progress since the Paralympic Games.

Helene Raynsford, Paralympic champion in the women’s arms-only single scull, will be absent from Poznan due to illness. GB has also named a mixed adaptive coxed four (LTAMix4+) today which is unchanged from the crew that won gold at the Munich World Cup but which includes two newcomers since Beijing – Dave Smith and James Roe.

*SIEMENS is the high performance partner of the GB Rowing Team (as such they sponsor all the Olympic and Paralympic Class boats in the senior squad and add value to the GB Rowing Teams’ World Class Start and High Performance Programme in Clubs Schemes)

Crew Lists World Rowing Championships, Poznan, Poland 2009

(Listed as bow to stroke plus cox)

OPEN WOMEN

Pair
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft/Warrington/16.09.85)
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)

Coach: Miles Forbes-Thomas

Eight (from a squad of ten rowers)
Jo Cook (Leander Club/Nottingham/22.03.84)
Jess Eddie (Uni of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)
Alice Freeman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/06.09.78)
Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC/Edinburgh/15.01.82)
Natasha Page (Reading Uni BC/Hartpury/30.04.85)
Tina Stiller (Nottingham RC/Yarm/23.06.87)
Melanie Wilson (Molesey BC/London/25.6.84)
Reserve no.1: to be confirmed
Reserve no.2: to be confirmed

Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Ealing/25.04.83) (cox)

Coach: Miles Forbes-Thomas

Single scull
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

Coach: Paul Thompson

Double scull
Anna Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)
Annabel Vernon (Marlow RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)

Coach: Paul Thompson

Quadruple scull
Rosamund Bradbury (Westminster School BC/Banstead/17.12.88)
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)
Sarah Cowburn (Durham Uni BC/Redditch/01.02.89)
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)

Coach: Ade Roberts

OPEN MEN

Pair
Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)
Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/03.03.79)

Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Four
Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.01.81)
Richard Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)
Alex Gregory (Reading Uni BC/Wormington/11.03.84)
Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)

Coach: Mark Banks

Eight (from a squad of ten rowers)
Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)
Tom Burton (Leander Club/Barton-le-Clay, Beds/24.05.80)
James Clarke (London RC/London/31.12.84)
Peter Marsland (Cambridge Uni BC/Hampton, Mx/06.03.85)
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/01.04.84)
Tom Ransley (Cambridge Uni BC/ Ashford, Kent/06.09.85)
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Uni of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)
Dan Ritchie (Reading Uni BC/Herne Bay/06.01.87)
Tom Solesbury (Isis BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.09.80)
Tom Wilkinson (Leander Club/Reading/04.07.85)

Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)

Coach: Christian Felkel/John West

Single scull
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Coach: Bill Barry

Double scull
Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)

Coach: Mark Earnshaw

Quadruple Scull
Charles Cousins (Reading Uni BC/Cambridge/13.12.88)
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni BC/Kingswear/13.09.87)
Sam Townsend (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.11.85)

Coach: Mark Earnshaw

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN

Double scull
Hester Goodsell (Reading Uni BC/Cambridge/27.06.84)/
Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86

Coach: Paul Reedy

Quadruple Scull
Stephanie Cullen (London RC/Putney, London/27.11.80)
Jane Hall (Leander Club/Caversham/20.10.73)
Laura Greenhalgh (London RC/Oxford/02.09.85)
Andrea Dennis (London RC/Oxford/03.01.82)

Coach: Don McLachlan

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN

Single scull
Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85)

Coach: Steve Trapmore

Double scull
Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)
Paul Mattick (Leander Club/Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)

Coach: Darren Whiter

Four

Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
Stephen Feeney (London RC/Coleraine/12.05.85)
Chris Boddy (Tees RC/Stockton-on-Tees/16.11.87)
Bob Hewitt (Tees RC/Scarborough/27.04.87)

Coach: Robin Williams

ADAPTIVE (Paralympic classes)

Men’s Arms-only Single Scull
Tom Aggar (Royal Docks RC/Barnet, London/24.05.84)

Coach: Tom Dyson

Trunk and Arms Double Scull
James Roberts (City of Swansea RC/Prestatyn/11.05.86)
Samantha Scowen (Dorney BC/Wokingham/29.10.87)

Coach: Tom Dyson

Mixed Adaptive Coxed Four
Vicki Hansford (Uni of Surrey BC/Farnborough/31.10.79)
James Roe (Stratford-upon-Avon BC//Stratford-upon-Avon28.03.88)
Dave Smith (Reading Uni BC/Aviemore/21.04.78)
Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow, London 15.06.83)
Rhiannon Jones (Reading Uni BC/Hereford/16.09.87) (cox)

Coach: TBC

Management and Support Staff

Performance Support Team:
David Tanner, Performance Director and Team Manager
Jurgen Grobler, Chief Coach (Men)
Paul Thompson, Chief Coach (Women & Lightweights)

Medical and Science Support Team:
Dr Ann Redgrave, Doctor
Mark Edgar, Physiotherapist
Karen Burn, Physiotherapist
Lilly Devine, Physiotherapist
Dr Chris Shambrook, Psychologist
Mark Homer, Physiologist
Wendy Martinson, Nutritionist

Adaptive Support Team:
Louise Kingsley, Selector
Tom Dyson, Lead coach
Dr Lucy Free, Doctor

Media/Admin/Logistics:
Caroline Searle, Press Officer
Fran Bullock, Sponsorship Coordinator
Rachel Simon, Assistant Team Manager (Admin)
Judi Read, Logistics Coordinator
Maurice Hayes, Rowing Resources Manager
John Tetley, Boatman
John Brockway, Driver