Great Britain team announced for World Rowing Championships

The World Rowing Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, between 9-16 September, with 66 athletes selected for the Great Britain team

Great Britain will send 66 athletes to the World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Buglaria, this September, including all 16 of the medallists from the recent Glasgow 2018 European Championships.

The women’s eight and men’s four remain unchanged after their silver medals in Glasgow, as does the lightweight men’s single sculls with Sam Mottram.

Angus Groom returns to partner Jack Beaumont in the men’s double sculls having had to miss the Europeans, at which Beaumont and Harry Leask took bronze. Groom and Beaumont took gold and silver in the 2018 World Cup series.

Leask returns to the single sculls, in which he raced at two World Cups this year, with last year’s bronze medallist in the single, Tom Barras, once again joining Graeme Thomas, Jonny Walton and John Collins in the quadruple sculls – the latter three all won silver in the event last year.

The women’s eight, stroked by Rebecca Shorten, will be looking to better last year’s fifth-place finish and will take confidence from their silver in Glasgow. In 2017, all six crews in the final were separated by just a length in one of the most exciting races of the regatta.

GB’s men’s eight features one change from the crew that was named for the Europeans, with James Rudkin coming in for Tom Jeffery. Olympic champions Moe Sbihi, who missed the final in Glasgow through illness, Will Satch and Tom Ransley all feature as GB look to get back to medal-winning ways, having taken two silvers in the World Cup series.

Rowan McKellar and Hattie Taylor took an impressive bronze in the women’s pair at World Cup 2 in Linz and will look to make their mark on the World Championships stage.

Jess Leyden returns to the women’s quadruple sculls, having missed the last two regattas with injury. Leyden and Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne in the bow seat both won bronze medals in the quad in Sarasota-Bradenton in 2017.

And GB will have four World Rowing U23 Championships gold medallists travelling to Plovdiv. Charlotte Hodgkins Byrne and Anna Thornton will form the women’s double sculls, while Sam Meijer is the sculling spare for the men’s squad. Imogen Grant will be a racing spare in the lightweight women’s single, but primarily providing backup to the lightweight quadruple sculls.

In a change to the GB Para-rowing squad, which was named back in July, Paralympic champion Lauren Rowles unfortunately misses out due to injury, meaning Laurence Whiteley will race the PR2 single sculls. The PR3 mixed coxed four will hope to take their place on top of the podium for the eighth successive year and features Paralympic champions Grace Clough and Daniel Brown.

British Rowing Director of Performance Brendan Purcell said: “We’re pleased to announce this team for the World Championships, which features strength across the board. The coaching team led by Chief Coaches Jurgen Grobler, Paul Thompson and Tom Dyson, supported by the sport science and medicine staff, deserve credit for managing the athletes through a busy season and preparing them for our most important regatta of the year.

“There have been some difficult moments this season, with injuries, illness and hard racing but the athletes have remained committed to the task at hand.

“We’re looking to finish the season well to ensure we take momentum into the important 2019 season and have clarity on what we need to do in 2019 to qualify as many boats to the Olympic and Paralympic Games as possible.”

The 2018 World Rowing Championships take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, between 9-16 September. You can follow all the action on British Rowing’s social media channels, as well as on the BBC.

Great Britain team for the 2018 World Rowing Championships – Plovdiv, Bulgaria (9-16 September)

Men’s squad

Men’s Pair

Ollie Cook (Club: Univ. of London BC / Hometown: Windsor)
Matt Rossiter (Leander Club / Newbury)
Coach: Steve Trapmore

Men’s Four

Tom Ford (Leander Club / Holmes Chapel)
Jacob Dawson (Leander Club / Plymouth)
Adam Neill (Leander Club / Peterborough)
James Johnston (Leander Club / Henley-on-Thames)
Coach: Christian Felkel

Men’s Eight

James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ. BC / Litchborough)
Tom George (Leander Club / Oxford)
Tom Ransley (Leander Club / Ashford, Kent)
Alan Sinclair (Leander Club / Inverness)
Moe Sbihi (Molesey BC / Surbiton)
Oliver Wynne-Griffith (Leander Club / Guildford)
Matthew Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC / Shepperton)
Will Satch (Leander Club / Henley-on-Thames)
(cox) Henry Fieldman (Leander Club / London)
Coach: Jürgen Grobler

Men’s Single Sculls

Harry Leask (Leander Club / Edinburgh)
Coach: Dan Moore

Men’s Double Sculls

Angus Groom (Leander Club / Glasgow)
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club / Maidenhead)
Coach: Dan Moore

Men’s Quadruple Sculls

Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC / Preston)
Jonny Walton (Leander Club / Leicester)
John Collins (Leander Club / Twickenham)
Tom Barras (Leander Club / Staines)
Coach: Paul Stannard

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls

Sam Mottram (Leander Club / Stoke Mandeville)
Coach: Hamish Burrell

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls

Zak Lee-Green (Agecroft RC / Cardiff)
Jamie Copus (Oxford Brookes Univ BC / Watlington)
Coach: Hamish Burrell

Men’s spares

Sam Meijer (Elizabethan BC / London)
Josh Bugajski (Oxford Brookes Univ. BC / Stockport)
Tom Jeffery (Leander Club / Plymouth)

Women’s squad

Women’s Pair

Rowan McKellar (Leander Club / Glasgow)
Harriet Taylor (Leander Club / Sunningdale)
Coach: Jane Hall

Women’s Four

Sara Parfett (University of London BC / Rochester)
Caragh McMurtry (Coalporters ARC / Southampton)
Emily Ashford (Leander Club / Buckfastleigh)
Jo Wratten (Leander Club / Middlesbrough)
Coach: Tom Pattichis

Women’s Eight

Anastasia Chitty (Leander Club / Oxford)
Rebecca Girling (Molesey BC / Fareham)
Fiona Gammond (Leander Club / Bicester)
Katherine Douglas (Leander Club / Edinburgh)
Holly Hill (Cambridge Univ. Women’s BC / Gossington)
Holly Norton (Leander Club / Johannesburg)
Karen Bennett (Leander Club / Edinburgh)
Rebecca Shorten (Imperial College BC / Belfast)
(cox) Matilda Horn (University of London BC / Windsor)
Coach: James Harris

Women’s Double Sculls

Charlotte Hodgkins Byrne (Univ. of London BC / Hereford)
Anna Thornton (Nottingham RC / Nottingham)
Coaches: Lauren Fisher & Paul Reedy

Women’s Quadruple Sculls

Mathilda Hodgkins Byrne (Reading Univ. BC / Hereford)
Melissa Wilson (Cambridge Univ. Women’s BC / Edinburgh)
Jessica Leyden (Leander Club / Todmorden)
Zoe Lee (Imperial College BC / Richmond, N. Yorks)
Coach: Paul Thompson

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls

Ellie Piggott (Wallingford RC / Bedford)
Emily Craig (University of London BC / Mark Cross)
Coach: Darren Whiter

Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls

Gemma Hall (Wallingford RC / Wargrave)
Francesca Rawlins (Tideway Scullers School / Uckfield)
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft RC / Marlow)
Maddie Arlett (Edinburgh Univ. BC / Selkirk)
Coaches: Darren Whiter & Paul Reedy

Women’s spares

Alice Baatz (Agecroft RC / Winchester) (may race women’s single sculls but primarily spare for W4x)
Imogen Grant (Cambridge Univ. Women’s BC / Cambridge) (racing lightweight women’s single sculls but primarily spare for LW4x)
Sam Courty (Bath Univ. BC / Alnwick)
Emily Ford (Leander Club / Holmes Chapel)

Para-rowing squad

PR1 Men’s Single Sculls

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

PR2 Men’s Single Sculls

Laurence Whiteley (Tees RC / Northallerton)
Coach: Tom Dyson

PR3 Mixed Coxed Four

Ellen Buttrick (Leeds RC / Leeds)
Grace Clough (Nottingham RC / Sheffield)
Ollie Stanhope (Molesey BC / London)
Daniel Brown (Henley RC / Reading)
(cox) Erin Wysocki-Jones (Leander Club / Wantage)
Coach: Nick Baker