Great Britain team for 2017 World Rowing Championships announced

Nineteen crews and 73 athletes have been named in the Great Britain team for the 2017 World Rowing Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton

Nineteen crews have been selected to represent Great Britain at the World Rowing Championships in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, between Sunday, 24 September and Sunday, 1 October

The GB Rowing Team contains 14 Olympians, including four gold medallists, and two Rio 2016 Paralympic champions among its 73 athletes.

GB go into the World Championships off the back of a good season; winning the World Rowing Cup series by 26 points from New Zealand – taking two individual event titles across the three regattas as well. The team also won four medals at the Gavirate International Para-rowing regatta in May, including two golds from the PR3 mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+).

Four members of that boat return for the World Championships, with Paralympic champions James Fox and Grace Clough looking to add another world title to their achievements list. Oliver Stanhope and cox Anna Corderoy also return, with Giedre Rakauskaite set to make her GB debut in Florida.

Andy Houghton is selected in the PR1 single scull (PR1 M1x) – his first World Rowing event since winning bronze at the World Cup in London back in 2013. Houghton returned to the squad in 2017 after the retirement of Paralympic champion Tom Aggar and took two silvers in Gavirate.

The Olympic men’s four (M4-) remains unchanged from the gold medal winning combination of the Lucerne World Cup regatta in July. Matt Rossiter, Moe Sbihi, Matthew Tarrant and Will Satch join forces once more to battle for World Championships gold. The quartet came together for World Cup II in Poznan, winning a silver medal, before beating European champions Italy at both Henley Royal Regatta and World Cup III in Lucerne.

Also remaining unchanged is the men’s quadruple scull (M4x) – another boat to win the individual World Cup title. Like the four, Jack Beaumont, Jonny Walton, John Collins and Peter Lambert came together in Poznan, where they won a fantastic gold medal, before another triumph at Henley three weeks later. A silver in Lucerne sees them move towards the World Championships full of confidence of challenging for the top medals.

European champion Vicky Thornley continues in the single scull (W1x), having won two World Cup silver medals alongside her gold from Racice this season. Thornley moved to the single scull in 2017 having won silver with Dame Katherine Grainger in the double scull at Rio 2016. Tom Barras keeps his seat in the men’s single.

Olympic finalist Alan Sinclair returns from injury to take the six seat in the men’s eight (M8+), adding more experience to the boat that has won silver and bronze medals in the World Cup series this season. Olympic champion Tom Ransley returns from an appendectomy that prevented him from racing at the last two World Cups.

London 2012 champion Katherine Copeland teams up once again with Emily Craig in the lightweight women’s double scull (LW2x). The two won European Championships bronze in Racice having won silver and bronze respectively in different boats in Belgrade.

Karen Bennett and Holly Norton swap the pair for the women’s eight (W8+) in Sarasota. Bennett won silver in the boat in Rio, and returned to help the relatively inexperienced crew to the same colour medal in Poznan. They finished the World Cup series with bronze in Lucerne.

Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour, world champions in 2015, will look to repeat that feat this season – teaming up once more in the lightweight pair (LM2-). The duo took a silver and a bronze in this year’s World Cup series.

The women’s lightweight quad (LW4x) of Maddie Arlett, Robyn Hart-Winks, Ellie Piggott and Gemma Hall took silver in Lucerne and will be hoping to go one better in Sarasota, while multiple world medallist Peter Chambers takes his place in the men’s lightweight quad alongside Gavin Horsburgh, Zak Lee-Green and Ed Fisher.

The women’s quadruple scull (W4x) is as it was for the first World Cup and European Championships. Jess Leyden, Beth Bryan, Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Holly Nixon won European bronze in May.

GB send a men’s pair (M2-) and coxed pair (M2+) to Sarasota, with Tom George and Tom Jeffery coming together in the former and Tim Clarke, Tom Ford and cox Harry Brightmore racing in the latter.

The women’s pair (W2-) sees Cambridge University Women’s Boat Race winners Holly Hill and Melissa Wilson race together once more. They were part of the sixth-place four in Lucerne.

And Sam Mottram and Jamie Copus race again in the lightweight men’s double scull (LM2x), having finished seventh in Lucerne.

British Rowing Performance Director, Sir David Tanner, said: “The 2017 World Championships come at the end of a long, but rewarding season for the GB Rowing Team.

“We have seen some exceptional performances over the course of the summer to win a number of European Championships and World Cup medals and we were, of course, pleased to win the overall World Cup title. That distinction highlights our consistency across what is a foundation season in our build up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“These Championships are what we’ve built our season around and we plan to be at our peak in Sarasota at the end of September.”

Men’s squad

Pair
Tom Jeffery (Club: Leander Club/Hometown: Plymouth)
Tom George (Leander Club/Oxford)
Coach: Rob Dauncey

Coxed pair
Tim Clarke (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames)
Tom Ford (Leander Club/Holmes Chapel)
Harry Brightmore (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC/Chester)
Coach: Rob Dauncey

Lightweight pair
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC/Coleraine)
Sam Scrimgeour (Molesey BC/Kirriemuir)
Coaches: Rob Dauncey/Dan Moore

Four
Matt Rossiter (Leander Club/Newbury)
Moe Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton)
Mat Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC/Shepperton)
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler

Eight
Ollie Cook (Oxford Univ. BC/Windsor)
Callum McBrierty (Leander Club/Edinburgh)
Jacob Dawson (Leander Club/Plymouth)
Adam Neill (Leander Club/Peterborough)
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Ashford, Kent)
Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Inverness)
James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ. BC/Litchborough)
Lance Tredell (Cambridge Univ. BC/Altrincham)
Henry Fieldman (cox) (Molesey BC/London)
Coach: Christian Felkel

Single scull
Tom Barras (Leander Club/Staines)
Coach: Paul Stannard

Men’s double scull
Graeme Thomas (Club: Agecroft RC/Hometown: Preston)
Angus Groom (Leander Club/Glasgow)
Coach: Hamish Burrell

Lightweight double scull
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville)
Jamie Copus (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC/Watlington)
Coach: Hamish Burrell

Quadruple scull
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead)
Jonny Walton (Leander Club/Leicester)
John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham)
Peter Lambert (Leander Club/Maidenhead)
Coach: Paul Stannard

Lightweight quadruple scull
Gavin Horsburgh (Edinburgh Univ. BC/Lochwinnoch)
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC/Coleraine)
Ed Fisher (Leander Club/Nottingham)
Zak Lee-Green (Agecroft/Cardiff)
Coach: Dan Moore

Men’s reserves
Frazier Christie (Leander Club/Bath)
Cameron Buchan (Leander Club/Dunipace)
Oliver Wynne-Griffith (Leander Club/Guildford)

Women’s squad

Pair
Holly Hill (Cambridge Univ. Women’s BC/Gossington)
Melissa Wilson (Cambridge Univ. Women’s BC/Edinburgh)
Coaches: Paul Thompson/James Harris

Women’s four
Caragh McMurtry (Coalporters ARC/Southampton)
Rebecca Girling (Molesey BC/Fareham)
Rowan McKellar (Broxbourne RC/Glasgow)
Sam Courty (Univ. of Bath/Alnwick)
Coach: Jane Hall

Eight
Anastasia Chitty (Leander Club/Oxford)
Rebecca Chin (Agecroft/Deganwy)
Fiona Gammond (Leander Club/Bicester)
Katherine Douglas (Leander Club/Edinburgh)
Josephine Wratten (Leander Club/Middlesbrough)
Holly Norton (Leander Club/Johannesburg)
Karen Bennett (Leander Club/Edinburgh)
Rebecca Shorten (Imperial College BC/Belfast)
Matilda Horn (cox) (Univ. of London BC/Windsor)
Coaches: James Harris/Paul Thompson

Single scull
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham)
Coach: Paul Reedy

Lightweight double scull
Katherine Copeland (Leander Club/Ingleby Barwick)
Emily Craig (Univ. of London BC/Mark Cross)
Coach: Darren Whiter

Quadruple scull
Beth Bryan (Leander Club/Stockton-on-Tees)
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Reading RC/Hereford)
Holly Nixon (Leander Club/Enniskillen)
Jess Leyden (Leander Club/Todmordon)
Coaches: Paul Thompson/James Harris

Lightweight quadruple scull
Maddie Arlett (Edinburgh Univ. BC/Selkirk)
Robyn Hart-Winks (Univ. of London BC/Kirriemuir)
Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Bedford)
Gemma Hall (Wallingford RC/Wargrave)
Coach: Ben Reed

Women’s reserves
Alice Baatz (Agecroft/Winchester)
Georgia Francis (Imperial College BC/Newbury)
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft/Marlow)
Annie Withers (Oxford Brookes Univ./Kingston)
Sara Parfett (Univ. of London/Rochester)

Para-rowing squad

PR1 single scull
Andy Houghton (Maidenhead RC/Newbury)
Coach: Tom Dyson

PR3 mixed coxed four
Oliver Stanhope (Molesey BC/Hampton)
Grace Clough (Nottingham RC/Sheffield)
Giedre Rakauskaite (Worcester RC/Worcester)
James Fox (Leander Club/Peterborough)
Anna Corderoy (cox) (Molesey BC/Stroud)
Coach: Nick Baker