Essen regatta provides opportunity for rowers to get “race ready”

Three members of the GB Rowing Team for the forthcoming European Championships will have an opportunity to get “race ready” when they compete at the 2015 International Huegel Regatta in Essen, Germany this weekend.

The two-day regatta – featuring Senior, U23 and Lightweight races – will also provide the chance for other members of the GB Rowing Team to get some competitive rowing under their belts ahead of a big season.

Double Olympian Beth Rodford – who has been named along with Melanie Wilson, Tina Stiller and Jess Leyden in the women’s quadruple scull for the European Championships – will contest the single scull on both Saturday and Sunday in Essen.

Angus Groom and Jack Beaumont will race tomorrow in the open men’s single and Zak Lee-Green in the lightweight men’s single.

Lee-Green said: “This weekend is a chance to be race ready and then hopefully when the Europeans come along I’ll be nearer my peak.”

Groom and Lee-Green will compete in the double scull races on Sunday, with Jack Beaumont and Jamie Copus respectively.

Karen Bennett and Rebecca Chin – who have been selected as spares for the European Championships – will race in the women’s pair tomorrow and on Sunday.

GB Rowing Team members Oliver Cook and Matthew Tarrant will team up with Tom George and Callum McBrierty in the men’s four on both days.

For the lightweight women, Brianna Stubbs, Emily Craig, Ruth Walczak and Ellie Piggott will form a quadruple scull on Sunday having raced in the single and double competitions tomorrow.

A number of U23 rowers will also be looking to impress ahead of this summer’s World U23 Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.