Two doubles in world cup hat-trick bids for GB Rowing Team
With more than half the GB Rowing Team competing this week at Henley Royal Regatta there is still an eye on preparation for the season’s third and final world cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, from July 9-11.
Marcus Bateman and Matt Wells, announced in the GB Rowing Team line-up for Switzerland today, will be seeking a hat-trick of wins in the double scull. They won in Bled in May as well as in Munich ten days ago but know that they may face a challenge from the world champion German double in Lucerne.
Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger could also register a hat-trick in the equivalent women’s event. They were dominant in Munich and Bled. Both will also double up in the quadruple scull event with Beth Rodford and Annabel Vernon where the British quartet will seek revenge over Germany who beat them narrowly in Munich.
“This is the business end of the world cup season”, said David Tanner, GB Rowing’s Performance Director. “We know that more, strong crews will be coming in from countries like Canada amongst others”.
Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter will test their mettle once more, after taking a gold which Hunter described as a “shock” in Munich, as both resume racing this season after a gap since winning lightweight men’s double scull gold in Beijing two summers ago.
The lightweight men’s four will also seek a repeat of the impressive win they had in Munich in a race which included the world champions from Denmark. Chris Bartley, Paul Mattick, Rob Williams and Richard Chambers have shown good consistency through the season with a silver in Bled, too.
Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking made a big step up in winning their lightweight women’s double scull final in Germany with a much better performance than that which gave them silver behind the USA in Bled last month. Greece and the USA could prove tough opponents this time round.
Alan Campbell, meanwhile, was forced to miss Henley on medical grounds and a decision on whether or not he races in Lucerne will be taken soon.
The world champion GB Rowing Team’s men’s four, winners of gold in Bled and bronze in Munich, will seek to re-establish the form that took them to the world title a year ago in a line-up with Alex Gregory at stroke whilst Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge look set to resume their battle with the world champions, New Zealand, in the men’s pair. Lucerne’s Rotsee could witness more of the same tight racing which was a feature of the Munich final, won by NZ.
Stephen Rowbotham, meanwhile, moves to the stroke seat in the men’s quad combination that made a promising start to the season with bronze in Munich.
The GB Rowing Team had two medal-winning eights in Bled and Munich.
GB’s women will have been disappointed with the overall silver they won in Munich but pleased with the manner in which they
overhauled Germany in the final few hundred metres to take silver. The GB men, meanwhile, will be aware that the opposition gets tougher from here onwards with crews like the USA, Australia and Canada yet to make an appearance.
The GB Rowing team also fields a second men’s and women’s pair as well as Debbie Flood, Brendan Crean and Andrea Dennis as its single scullers. Chris Boddy and Adam Freeman-Pask contest the lightweight men’s pair.
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GB ROWING TEAM ENTRIES
2010 Rowing World Cup, Lucerne, Switzerland (9-11 July)
(listed bow to stroke plus cox)
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Helen Glover (Reading Uni BC/Penzance/17.06.86)/
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85)
Eight
Jo Cook (Leander Club/Sunbury-on-Thames/22.03.84)/
Louisa Reeve (LeanderClub/London/16.05.84)/
Natasha Page (Reading Uni BC/Hartpury/30.04.85)/
Victoria Thornley (Minerva Bath/Wrexham/30.11.87)/
Jessica Eddie (Uni of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC/Edinburgh/15.01.82)/
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC/Warrington/16.09.85)/
Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)/
Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Ealing/25.04.83) (cox)
Single scull
Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Guiseley/27.02.80)/
Double scull – two boats
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)/
Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)
Annabel Vernon (Marlow RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)
Quadruple scull
Annabel Vernon (Marlow RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)/
Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)/
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)
OPEN
MEN
Pair – two boats
Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/03.03.79)
Cameron Nichol (Molesey/Glastonbury/26.6.87)/
Tom Burton (Leander Club/Barton-le-Clay, Beds/24.05.80)
Four
Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/
Richard Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)/
Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)/
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)/
Eight
Tom Wilkinson (Leander Club/Reading/04.07.85)/
James Clarke (London RC/London/31.12.84)/
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/01.04.84)/
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Greg Searle (Molesey BC/Marlow/20.03.72)/
Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)
Daniel Ritchie (Herne Bay RC/Herne Bay/06.01.87)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)
Single scull – two boats
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)
Brendan Crean (Agecroft/Lewes/07.02.85)
Double scull
Matthew Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)/
Quadruple scull
Charles Cousins (Reading Uni BC/Cambridge/13.12.88)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.11.85)/
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni BC/Kingswear/13.09.87)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)/
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Single scull
Andrea Dennis (Reading Uni BC/Oxford/03.01.82)
Double scull
Hester Goodsell (Reading Uni BC/London/27.06.84)/
Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86)
LIGHTWEIGHT
MEN
Pair
Chris Boddy (Leander Club/Stockton-on-Tees/16.11.87)/
Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85)
Four
Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)/
Paul Mattick (Leander Club/Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)/
Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)/
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
Double scull
Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury/02.05.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/01.07.78)
