Squad announced for World U23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The GB Rowing Team has announced a 50-strong squad of rowers for the World U23 Rowing Championships, taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from July 22-26.

Among those selected are European senior medallists Jack Beaumont and Joel Cassells, while the growing depth of talent in the women’s sweep section is reflected by entries in all three boat categories.

Beaumont will compete at a fourth successive World U23 Championships after being selected for the single scull.

He teamed up with Angus Groom to win a breakthrough double scull bronze medal at the 2014 event and claimed his first senior medal earlier this year as part of the men’s quad which took bronze at the European Championships in Poznan, Poland.

Two members of the lightweight men’s four that won silver at the World U23s in Varese last year have this year been named in the lightweight quad.

Cassells – a senior European champion in the lightweight men’s pair – and Jamie Copus are joined by Steven Parsonage and Sam Mottram. The same crew, representing Leander Club and Oxford Brookes University, reached the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup final at the recent Henley Royal Regatta.

James Rudkin and Tom George form the open men’s pair, having raced in the four and eight respectively last year. George, like a number of the selected rowers, has been studying in the USA but raced for Leander Club in the Ladies’ Plate (an event for intermediate eights) at Henley Royal Regatta earlier this month.

George also spent some months earlier this year training with the open men’s squad at the national training centre at Caversham.

Tom Barras has been selected for a second year in the men’s quad, along with Frazier Christie, Andy Brown and Andy Joel.

Lewis McCue, who is now an U23 veteran, is named in the men’s four for a second successive year and is joined by James Johnston, who was in the eight in 2014, plus Richard Clarke and Ross Jarvis.

Six of the women’s eight that won silver at the 2014 Championships in Varese, Italy, are in the squad, with Nicole Lamb and cox Morgan Baynham-Williams in the boat for a third successive year.

Baynham-Williams has already raced at senior European level this year when she subbed in for a poorly Zoe de Toledo to cox the GB Rowing Team women’s eight in Poznan, Poland, in May.

Katie Bartlett also remains in the eight, while Sam Courty and Melissa Wilson join Emily Ford and Holly Hill in the four. Hill and Wilson both represented Cambridge in the first women’s Boat Race to be raced on the Tideway on the same day as the men’s race earlier this year.

21-year-old Hill is part of the GB Rowing Team Start Programme – an innovative and successful talent identification and development programme through which, since 2001, rowers like Helen Glover, Mohamed Sbihi, Sam Townsend, Anna Watkins and others have emerged to win either Olympic or World medals for GB.

Courty, Beth Bryan from the eight and Ellie Lewis from the quad are also “Start” rowers.

Hill took up rowing after London 2012, inspired by a TV piece about Glover and Heather Stanning, the Olympic women’s pair champions.

Rowan McKellar and Holly Norton will contest the women’s pair and could be a crew to watch.

Georgia Francis moves into the double scull to partner Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, also part of the Start Programme. The latter was fifth in the quadruple sculls last year alongside Holly Nixon, who has been named in the eight for Plovdiv.

Lewis and Lucy Cruxton were in the lightweight women’s quad which finished fourth in Varese. They will be joined in the boat this year by Maddie Arlett and Flo Pickles.

Pickles raced for Gloucester RC and won the junior women’s quadruple scull at Henley Royal Regatta.

CREW LISTS (Includes club(s), home town, date of birth)

GB Rowing Team for World U23 Championships
Plovdiv, Bulgaria, July 22-26

OPEN

WOMEN

Pair
Rowan McKellar (Broxbourne RC/Glasgow/24.05.94)
Holly Norton (Leander Club/Johannesburg, SA/01.01.93)
Coach: Peter Sheppard

Four
Emily Ford (Newcastle Univ BC/Crewe/08.11.94)
Sam Courty (Bath Univ BC/Alnwick/07.01.93)
Holly Hill (Cambridge Univ Women’s BC/Gossington/23.01.94)
Melissa Wilson (Cambridge Univ Women’s BC/Edinburgh/10.06.93)
Coach: Peter Lee

Eight
Beth Bryan (Tees RC/Stockton-on-Tees/23.04.93)
Katie Bartlett (Nottingham RC/Loughborough Students RC/Nottingham/02.02.94)
Hattie Taylor (Sport Imperial/Sunningdale/14.02.94)
Holly Nixon (Leander Club/Enniskillen/07.12.93)
Annie Withers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Surrey/22.02.93)
Alice White (Imperial College/Bradford/20.01.93)
Gillian Cooper (Nottingham RC/Oakham/14.02.93)
Nicole Lamb (Newcastle Univ BC/Hexham/20.01.93)
Morgan Baynham-Williams (cox) (Leander Club/Ross-On-Wye/28.06.94)
Coach: Lauren Fisher

Double scull
Georgia Francis (Imperial College BC/Newbury/18.08.94)
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Reading Univ BC/Reading RC/Hereford/01.10.94)
Coach: Dan Moore

MEN

Pair
James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ BC/Northampton/07.07.94)
Tom George (Leander Club/Oxford/22.09.94)
Coach: Angelo Savarino

Four
Richard Clarke (Univ of London BC/Kingston-upon-Thames/06.11.93)
Ross Jarvis (Univ of London BC/Upminster/19.08.94)
James Johnston (Leander Club/Henley/26.08.94)
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon Univ BC/Aberdeen/26.12.94)
Coach: Brian Young

Eight
Rory Gibbs (Oxford Brookes University/Lane End/03.04.94)
Oli Knight (Newcastle Univ BC/Addlestone/15.09.95)
Harry Leask (Leander Club/Edinburgh/16.10.95)
Rufus Scholefield (Edinburgh Univ BC/Jersey/29.10.93)
Henry Millar (Edinburgh Univ BC/Fivemiletown/25.02.94)
Will Hall (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Winchester/08.05.94)
Henry Swarbrick (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Richmond/05.04.94)
Morgan Bolding (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Withiel/13.05.95)
Harry Brightmore (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Chester/01.07.94)
Coach: Henry Bailhache-Webb

Single scull
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.93)
Coach: Matt Beechey

Quadruple scull
Tom Barras (Cardiff Univ RC/Staines/07.01.94)
Frazier Christie (Bath Univ BC/Bath/11.01.93)
Andy Brown (Tees RC/Yarm/12.01.93)
Andy Joel (Leander Club/Windsor/08.06.95)
Coach: Dan Harris

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Quadruple sculls
Maddie Arlett (Edinburgh Univ BC/Selkirk/07.06.94)
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft RC/Marlow/14.04.94)
Flo Pickles (Gloucester Hartpury/Cheltenham/02.11.96)
Lucy Cruxton (Reading Univ BC/Stoke-on-Trent/22.12.93)
Coach: Tom Pattichis

Spare
Emma McDonald (Glasgow Univ BC/Lochwinnoch/11.10.94)

MEN

Pair
James Goble (Eton Vikings/Winchester/23.11.95)
Tom Marshall (Leander Club/Mold/12.03.94)
Coach: Phil Gray

Four
Ed Fisher (Leander Club/Nottingham/16.04.94)
Jonathan Jackson (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/02.06.95)
Ben Reeves (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Wilmslow/10.05.94)
Alastair Douglass (Molesey BC/Shepperton/22.06.95)
Coach: Franz lmfeld

Quadruple sculls
Steven Parsonage (Leander Club/Norwich/16.01.96)
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/15.06.94)
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/14.11.94)
Jamie Copus (Oxford Brookes Univ/BC/Watlington/30.01.93)
Coach: Ross Hunter