Will it be all change at the top?
Former World U23 Champion Mat Tarrant and European silver medallist Will Fletcher are amongst a large group of world age-group and European senior medallists who will be hoping to challenge the established order at the GB Rowing Team Senior & U23 Trials this weekend (20-21 April).
The event will be headlined by Olympic champions Helen Glover, Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory and comes a month after many of the national squad athletes raced at the World Cup in Sydney.
Racing starts* with time-trial heats on Saturday morning. Semi-finals will be on Saturday afternoon with finals on Sunday morning. The trials are taking place at the national training centre at Caversham rather than at Dorney Lake.
Brothers Peter and Richard Chambers, from Coleraine and 2012 silver medallists together, will go head to head in the lightweight men’s single scull – an event which looks set to be one of the most intense of the weekend.
Richard has the family “bragging rights” so far. He beat younger brother Peter into sixth place two years ago in the final but missed out last year through illness when Peter went on to take second place overall behind Adam Freeman-Pask.
The European lightweight men’s four silver medal crew are all in action – Jonno Clegg, Fletcher, Sam Scrimgeour and Freeman-Pask – as are the European lightweight men’s double scull of Chris Boddy and Mikey Mottram.
The Chambers’ brothers will also face Chris Bartley who won silver in the lightweight men’s four with them in London.
Olympic medallists Alan Campbell and Matt Langridge race in the men’s single scull. Campbell will be seeking to defend his title. Langridge, more recently featuring in sweep-oar boats like the men’s four in which he was World Champion in 2011, is returning to action in the single and as a former World Junior Champion is likely to be a good contender.
Two “titan” British clubs will clash in the open men’s pair. Gregory and Reed team up for Leander against Triggs Hodge and Mohamed Sbihi, an Olympic men’s eight bronze medallist, from Molesey. Hodge and Reed have previously won multiple Trials titles together, including 2012.
George Nash, winner of Olympic bronze in this event last year, has an academic exemption as he is completing his finals at Cambridge before becoming available for the squad later this year.
His Olympic partner Will Satch, like James Foad from the Olympic men’s eight, continues the long road back from injury and surgery.
Helen Glover transfers to a somewhat less familiar single scull event for the trials where she will race established scullers as well as emerging athletes led by Vicky Meyer-Laker and Polly Swann – both newcomers who won world cup medals last month.
Olympic champions Anna Watkins, expecting a baby in September, Katherine Grainger and Heather Stanning are all taking time out from the sport. Stanning is on Army duties whilst Grainger is focusing on her PhD.
Imogen Walsh starts as favourite for the lightweight women’s single scull where she faces close team-mates Kathryn Twyman and Ruth Walczak whilst Olympic champion Kat Copeland has recently returned to training at club level as she continues to take time out internationally.
The Trials will be followed by two weeks of further testing and crew formation before the GB Rowing Team for the BBC-televised next World Cup – due to take place at the Olympic venue of Eton Dorney from June 21-23 – is announced.
“We will have some crew formation work to do once we have gauged everyone’s individual abilities and fitness at the Trials this weekend”, said Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director. “We will also see which of the emerging rowers can lay down a top-level performance under pressure”.
*Weather-dependent. NB – there is no spectator access to the 2013 Trials which are being held at the national training centre at Caversham.
For full biogs visit: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk
For club, home towns & dates of birth – see entry list below
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EVENT BY EVENT
Open men’s pair (M2-)
A few short years ago Matt Gotrel was more familiar with the insides of a 49er sailing boat as part of the GB squad than a men’s pair rowing boat.
He swapped sports whilst studying systems engineering at university and was soon picked up by the GB Rowing Team’s Start talent identification and development programme.
His rise has been somewhat spectacular with a place in GB’s gold medal winning eight a month ago in Sydney, racing with a host of Olympic champions and medallists.
This weekend at Caversham the Chipping Camden man goes back to basics with the other men’s eight rookie from Sydney, Lance Tredell, a European championships men’s eight finalist and former schoolboy middle distance champion.
They are amongst a field of 20 men’s pairs and will take on World senior men’s eight medallists and men of Kent Tom Ransley and Dan Ritchie as well as Durham’s Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell from that senior men’s eight world medal crew of 2011 with Scotland’s Alan Sinclair, twice a winner at Henley Royal Regatta and now a part-time rowing coach.
Somewhat inevitably the favourites to win include Olympic gold duo Pete Reed and Alex Gregory, both from Gloucestershire, or their 2012 men’s four gold team-mate Yorkshireman Andrew Triggs Hodge who teams up this year with Londoner and world and Olympic men’s eight medallist Mohamed Sbihi from his Molesey club instead of Reed with whom he competed for three years on the world stage in the men’s pair.
Open men’s single scull (M1x)
Alan Campbell, from Coleraine, and the 2012 Olympic men’s single scull bronze medallist, will be seeking a record ninth Trials’ title this weekend.
The multiple world medallist could find his stiffest opposition comes from the likes of Reading’s Sam Townsend, Cambridge’s Charles Cousins, Devon’s Bill Lucas and his 2012 single scull training partner and European finalist Graeme Thomas, from Preston. This quartet won the men’s quad at the Sydney world cup last month.
Jonathan Walton, from Loughborugh University, the single sculler for GB in Sydney, John Collins, a former Henley Double Sculls Challenge Cup winner, and Ollie Cook, an indomitable adventurer for charitable causes, when not rowing could be amongst the others “to watch” in this event.
Cheshire’s 2011 World men’s four champion and Olympic men’s eight bronze medallist Matt Langridge also eases himself back into competition this weekend in a single scull.
Open women single scull
Whereas the squad’s top men are split between the open single and pair, all of the nation’s top women – barring those taking a sojourn after the tough 2008 – 2012 Olympic cycle – are in the open single scull this weekend.
That means a new venture for Penzance’s Helen Glover, winner of the women’s pair with Heather Stanning at trials a year ago before going on to win the same event at the Olympic Games.
The field also includes a host of names like Polly Swann – who is studying medicine in Edinburgh – and who won the women’s pair at the Sydney world cup last month with Glover.
Caragh McMurtry, a 2012 World U23 and European women’s pair silver medallist is still missing as she recovers from injury. Other emerging rowers at the top level include Vicky Meyer-Laker, Monica Relph, Kristina Stiller, Leonora Kennedy, Olivia Carnegie-Brown, Zoe Lee and Channel Islander Erica Bodman.
Amongst the more established names, Olympic finalist and 2011 World women’s eight bronze medallist Louisa Reeve, from London, is back in action after a long injury lay-off.
Oxford’s Frances Houghton, from the 2010 World Champion women’s quad and twice Olympic silver medallist, Wrexham’s Vicky Thornley and Katie Greves, of Oxford, from the Olympic finalist and 2011 World bronze medal eights, are also in action. Beth Rodford, normally such a feisty competitor at the trials, has a medical exemption.
Lightweight men’ single scull
For years this event was dominated by twice Olympic medallist Zac Purchase. He is taking a break and his Beijing Olympic champion partner Mark Hunter is trying his hand at BBC punditry.
They will be absent this weekend. Nonetheless the intensity of competition in this body-weight controlled event does not seem to have dropped.
The ultimate “leader board” on Sunday will doubtless include world and Olympic medallists like brothers Richard and Peter Chambers with Chris Bartley.
They could be challenged heavily for places in the six-boat final by Chris Boddy, Mikey Mottram, Sam Scrimgeour, Adam Freeman-Pask, Jonno Clegg, and Will Fletcher who all have at least a European senior medal to their name.
Lightweight women’s single scull
Wallingford RC’s Eleanor Piggott and Briana Stubbs line up amongst the challengers in this event. Both are U23s who have competed at World U23 level – although for Stubbs this was in the open weight women’s eight in 2011. So, too has London RC’s Rebecca Humphreys, who was in the lightweight women’s quad in 2011.
Both clubs have a pedigree of producing top-class lightweights including current senior squad incumbents Kathryn Twyman, also of Wallingford, and Imogen Walsh of London RC.
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TIMETABLE
Saturday 20 April
Heats (time-trials) 09.30 – 11.30
Semi-finals 14.30 – 17.30
Sunday 21 April
FINALS 09.30 – 12.30
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2011 and 2012 WINNERS
2011 Winners
OPEN
Women’s pair: Helen Glover/Heather Stanning
Women’s single: Anna Watkins
Men’s pair: Peter Reed/Andrew Triggs Hodge
Single scull: Alan Campbell
LIGHTWEIGHT
Women’s single: Sophie Hosking
Men’s single: Zac Purchase
2012 Winners
OPEN
Women’s pair: Helen Glover/Heather Stanning
Women’s single: Katherine Grainger
Men’s pair: Peter Reed/Andrew Triggs Hodge
Single scull: Alan Campbell
LIGHTWEIGHT
Women’s single: Kat Copeland
Men’s single: Adam Freeman-Pask
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ENTRY LISTS
Senior Trials 20 – 21 April 2013
Caversham, UK
(Name – Club/Home Town/Date of Birth)
OPEN WOMEN
Single scull
Clio Aubugeau-Williams (Imperial College BC/Woodbridge/17.02.93)*
Katie Bartlett (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/02.02.94)*
Erica Bodman (Leander Club/Guernsey/24.01.88)
Ro Bradbury (Leander Club/Banstead/17.12.88)
Bethany Bryan (Tees RC/Stockton-on-tees/23.04.93)*
Olivia Carnegie-Brown (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Oxford/28.13.91)*
Helena Castle-Smith (Molesey BC/Alton/20.04.93)*
Rebecca Chin (Agecroft RC/Salford/11.12.91)*
Anastasia Chitty (Osiris/London/07.12.93)*
Stella D’Arch Smith (Agecroft RC/13.06.90/Uttoxeter)
Katherine Douglas (Leander Club/Midlothian/03.08.89)*
Jessica Eddie (London RC/Durham/07.10.84)
Emily Ford (Grange School BC/Holmes Chapel/08.11.94)*
Holly Game (Cambridge Uni Women’s BC/Woodbridge/09.03.92)*
Helen Glover (Minerva Bath/Penzance/17.06.86)
Lucinda Gooderham (Imperial College BC/Norfolk/09.06.84)
Katie Greves (Leander Club/Oxford/02.09.82)
Frances Houghton (Leander Club/Oxford/19.09.80)
Leonora Kennedy (Imperial College BC/Enniskillen/12.01.87)
Nicole Lamb (Newcastle Uni BC/Hexham/20.01.93)*
Zoe Lee (Sport Imperial BC/Richmond/15.12.85)
Claire McKeown (Clydesdale ARC/Glasgow/16.07.90)
Caragh McMurtry (Reading Uni BC/Southampton/22.08.91)*
Vicki Meyer-Laker (Leander Club/Premnay/18.03.88)
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club/London/16.05.84)
Monica Relph (Leander Club/Cambridge/15.01.88)
Iona Riley (Robert Gordon Uni BC/Aberdeen/17.04.92)*
Fay Sandford (Cambridge Uni Women’s BC/Sutton/29/03/91*
Kristina Stiller (Tees RC/Yarm/23.06.87)
Polly Swann (Leander Club/Edinburgh/15.06.88)
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club/Wrexham/30.11.87)
Laura Wheeler (Nottingham RC/Burton-on-Trent/16.02.85)
Mel Wilson (Imperial College BC/London/25.06.84)
Helen Wood (Imperial College BC/Maidenhead/16.03.87)
Josephine Wratten (Tees RC/Yarm/23.03.92)*
OPEN MEN
Pair
Frazier Christie (Bath Uni BC/Watchfield/11.01.93)*
Ollie Wynne-Griffith (Molesey BC/29.05.94)
Timothy Clarke (Newcastle Uni BC/Reading/07.04.91)*
Thomas Ford (Newcastle Uni BC/Holmes Chapel/03.10.92)*
James Cook (Uni of London BC/Windsor/02.07.92*
Ertan Hazine (Uni of London BC/Maidenhead/01.08.91)*
Oliver Cook (Uni of London BC/Windsor/05.06.90)
Tom Clark (Leander Club/Worcester/28.01.89)
Matt Gotrel (Leander Club/Chipping Camden/01.03.89)
Lance Tredell (Leander Club/Hale/25.10.88)
Edward Grisedale (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Congleton/09.12.93)*
Oliver Holt (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Chester/11.01.92)*
Joseph Guppy (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Eastbourne/27.03.93)*
Michael Lawrence (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Wiltshire/31.08.93)*
Francis Highton (Durham Uni BC/Weybridge/10.04.91)*
Callum McBrierty (Durham Uni BC/Edinburgh/13.08.93)*
Karl Hudspith (Oxford Uni BC/Twickenham/31.03.88)
Paul Bennett (Oxford Uni BC/Leeds/16.12.88)
James Martyn Smith (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Altrincham/27.07.91)*
Timothy Grant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Otford/02.07.93)*
Tom Ransley (Leander Club/Cambridge/16.09.85)
Dan Ritchie (Leander Club/Herne Bay/16.01.87)
Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth/27.07.81)
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)
Moe Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)
Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden/03.03.79)
Alan Sinclair (Leander Club/Inverness/16.10.85)
Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Uni of London BC/Durham/13.04.88)
Oliver Staite (Oxford Brookes Uni BC)*
Rowan Lawson (Cambridge Uni BC)*
Mat Tarrant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Shepperton/11.07.90)
Scott Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)
Matthew Tatlock (Molesey BC/East Horsley/03.06.91)*
Ed Ford (Molesey BC/Holmes Chapel/22.10.89)
Colin Williamson (Molesey BC/Henley-on-Thames/03.04.83)
Phil Congdon (Molesey BC/East Molesey/06.06.89)
Gary Wilson (Aberdeen BC/Aberdeen/23.09.91)*
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon Uni BC/Aberdeen/26.12.94)*
Single scull
Tom Barras (Cardiff Uni BC/Staines/07/01/94) TBC
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.93)*
Josh Bugajski (Cardiff Uni BC/Cardiff/05.10.90)
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School/Coleraine/09.05.83)
Dan Clift (Isle of Ely RC/Torpoint/15.06.88)
John Collins (Leander Club/Twickenham/24.01.89)
Charles Cousins (Leander Club/Willingham/13.12.88)
Mason Durant (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Lancaster/12.02.88)
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87) TBC
Angus Groom (Durham Uni BC/Wanborough/16.06.92)*
Charles Herbert (Leander ClubBedford/29.05.91)*
Stewart Innes (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/20.05.91)*
Pete Lambert (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/03.12.86)
Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)
Oliver Lee (Agecroft RC/Stockport/07.03.91)*
Bill Lucas (London RC/Kingswear/13.09.87)
William Mace (Durham Uni BC/Great Broughton/01.07.92)*
Nick Middleton (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/12.08.88)
Luke Moon (Tideway Scullers School/Deal/25.03.93)*
James Rudkin (Newcastle Uni BC/Litchborough/07.07.94)*
Will Satch (Leander Club/Henley-on-Thames/09.06.89) TBC
Ben Spencer Jones (Imperial College BC/Putney/06.02.92)*
Barnaby Stentiford (Durham Uni BC/Newton Abbot/06.02.91*
Graeme Thomas (Agecroft RC/Preston/08.11.88)
Sam Townsend (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.11.85)
Jonathan Walton (Leander Club/Leicester/06.10.90)
William Warr (Durham Uni BC/Durham/12.03.92)*
LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN
Single scull
Rosa Atkinson (Imperial College BC/Frodsham/16.11.92)*
Emily Craig (Uni of London BC/East Sussex/30.11.92)*
Lucy Cruxton (Reading Uni BC/Stoke-on-Trent/22.12.93)*
Charlotte Dexter (Exeter Uni BC/Roxston/06/07/91)
Gemma Hall (Newcastle Uni BC/Wargrave/10.04.92)*
Rebecca Humphreys (London RC/London/22.03.89)
Ellie Lewis (Sir William Borlase/Marlow/14/04/94)
Kate Parrish (Bristol Uni BC/Bedford/20.02.92)*
Eleanor Piggott (Wallingford RC/Olney/16.05.91)*
Elizabeth Polgreen (Isle of Ely RC/Cambridge/19.10.88)
Francesca Rawlins (Mortlake A&A RC/08.07.86)
Maxie Scheske (Osiris/St Margarets/05.11.93)*
Nicola Spencer (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/04/12/86)
Brianna Stubbs (Wallingford RC/Headington/13.07.91)*
Charlotte Taylor (Putney Town RC/London/14.08.85)
Kathryn Twyman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/29.03.87)
Ruth Walczak (Molesey BC/Rochdale/15.09.88)
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness/17.01.84)
LIGHTWEIGHT MEN
Single scull
Mark Aldred (London RC/London/18.04.87)
Inigo Atkin (Uni of London BC/Chester/21.06.92)*
Jonathan Bale (London RC/London/22.02.83)
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)
Matthew Bedford (Uni of London BC/Maidenhead/21.01.91*
Benjamin Board (Leander Club/West Sussex/09.03.93)*
Chris Boddy (Leander Club/Thornaby-on-Tees/16.11.87)
Nicholas Buckle (Newcastle Uni BC/Newcastle-Upon-Tyne/24.05.92)*
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Coleraine/15/06/94)
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Coleraine/14.03.90)
Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)
Jono Clegg (Leander Club/Maidenhead/14.07.89)
Jamie Copus (Leander Club/Wallingford/30.01.93)*
Andrew Dowty (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.02.93)*
James Ellison (Exeter Uni BC/Malmesbury/25.11.90)
Alexander Evangelidis (Loughborough Students BC/Loughborough/11/11/91)
Donald Evans (Queens Uni Belfast RC/Aryshire/28.09.88)
William Fletcher (Leander Club/Chester-le-Street/24.12.89)
Adam Freeman-Pask (Reading Uni BC/Windsor/19.06.85)
Christopher Goldsack (Uni of London BC/Wincanton/13.09.91)*
John Hale (Isle of Ely RC/Girton/28.02.88)
Stuart Heap (London RC/Marlow/10.04.87)
Myles Holbrough (Imperial College BC/London/23.02.93*
Wilf Kimberley (Imperial College BC/London/15.07.92)*
Jamie Kirkwood (Leander Club/Cresswell/30.08.89)
Tom Marshall (Leander Club/Chester/12.03.94)*
Mike Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/08.06.90)
Timothy Richards (Imperial College BC/London/12/05/92)
Alex Robertson (Leander Club/Bedford/29.03.92)*
Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Fofar/28.01.88)
Lewis Sloan (Leander Club/Old Windsor/25.06.93)*
Stuart Sykes (Nottingham Uni BC/Rochdale/14.03.91)*
Charles Waite-Roberts (W. of England Uni BC/Bristol/06.11.92)*
Jasper Warner (Nephthys/Oxford/15.10.90)
Felix Wood (Leander Club/Watlington/09.03.91)*
Timothy Woodman (Durham Uni BC/Thornaby/28.02.92)*
* denotes eligible for W
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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about this event please contact:
Miranda Edwards or Caroline Searle: [email protected] or 01225 384 211 – PLEASE NOTE NEW NUMBER
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