Lightweight four serve GB Rowing Team dish of day
For pulse-raising, the lightweight men’s four’s race to a heat victory over China took top prize today. It was flat out, fast and very close all the way.
The win put them into the final on Sunday. Six more British crews also progressed with them today – the men’s eight, women’s double and quad and the lightweight men’s pair, women’s single and double.
A further eight British crews are through to semi-finals, leaving three with second chances still to come through repechages.
“It was a good day with more crews needing to work hard to progress tomorrow”, said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner.
World Champions Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger passed a decent test to win their double scull heat as did reigning Olympic Champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase.
“It’s good to be back out there racing”, said Hunter aftwards.
The 2012 GB Rowing Team men’s four recovered from a slow start to win their heat and the men’s eight repelled a late surge from Poland to take victory.
“It was good to start with a win in the heat after our first run-out as a crew”, said 2011 World Champion Alex Gregory of the four’s performance.
A business-like atmosphere rather than any undue excitement pervaded the GB camp, though, as opening world cup’s of the season tend to have good but not full-on starting line-ups.
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RACE REPORTS
Double World Champions Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger came through a decent test to win their heat from Germany this morning. They were ahead, on the far side of the course, from early doors and kept the pressure on to win smoothly and book a place in the final on Sunday.
The British women’s quadruple scull has 2010 World Champion and twice Olympic silver medallist Frances Houghton back on board this year. Stroked by “Sporting Giant” recruit Vicky Thornley they emerged at 750m gone to create a cushion over the USA and China who never quite had enough to catch them.
Early in the day’s racing programme the women’s pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning showed their pedigree with a dominant race. They won by seven seconds from the second-string Romanian pair here. It was a good indicator of form with more testing times to come later.
The GB Rowing Team’s women’s eight have been on the water training today but will not race for real until Sunday in a straight final of the four crews here.
So, only the two women’s single scull contestants of Rachel Gamble Flint and Natasha Page will race repechages after finishing close thirds in their respective races.
Cox Phelan Hill and his men’s eight crew, stroked here by World men’s four Champion Matt Langridge, needed to raise their game in the final 300m of the men’s eight heats. Poland decided to give them a late run for their money before the British picked the pace back up again to win in 5:28.29. Germany, the World Champions, were winners of the opposing heat.
Britain’s openweight male scullers had a good day on the water. Alan Campbell was distinctly unruffled by the opposition in his men’s single scull heat and duly progressed to tomorrow’s semi-finals. The men’s quad will join him that stage after a great second-half recovery to snatch third place.
Encouragingly, Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend who are the British men’s double scull combination here in Belgrade were heat winners, too. They were down on the French and Slovenians at half way but then emerged to win in 6:12.08. Both are graduates of the GB Rowing Team’s Start programme which is sponsored by Siemens and backed by the lottery and which identifies and develops new rowing talent.
Not to be outdone, the new-look men’s pair of Will Satch and George Nash also took a heat win. They kept ahead of the Netherlands throughout with Croatia’s experienced siblings of Sinisa and Niksa Skelin also contending until half-way before dropping back. But the only slot in the semis went to the British duo in 6:34.36
Their more illustrious counterparts – Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory – were not so quick out of the blocks in the men’s four but made amends as the race reached the halfway point and then pushed on to win.
Olympic Champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter led early and closed off a win in the lightweight men’s double scull as did their female counterparts Kat Copeland and Sophie Hosking. In the same women’s heat Andrea Dennis and Imogen Walsh were fourth and now race a repechage.
The lightweight men’s four of Peter Chambers, Rob Williams, Richard Chambers and Chris Bartley soon realized they had a race on their hands in this ever intensely competitive event. At halfway they were down to China by seven tenths. The lead swapped hands but China still led at 1500m before the GB boat dug into the reserves to find an extra precious second or so over their clearly tiring opponents.
Kathryn Twyman, in the single, and Paul Mattick and Adam Freeman-Pask in the men’s pair, showed the depth of the lightweight squad with dominant wins from the front of the pack.
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RESULTS
(Events featuring British crews only. For full results: www.worldrowing.com)
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
1. Helen Glover/Heather Stanning (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:06.94
2. Adelina Cojocariu/Irina Dorneanu (Romania 2) 7:14.02
3. Tetiana Stekolschykov/Viktoriia Vykhirst (Ukraine 2) 7:19.76
4. Alice Mayne/Stephanie Dechand (France) 7:20.38
5. Wianka Van Dorp/Olivia van Rooijen (Netherlands 3) 7:26.98
Single scull – Heat 1
1. Mirka Knapkova (Czech Republic) 7:35.70
2. Nataliya Mustafayeva (Azerbajan) 7:39.47
3. Rachel Gamble-Flint (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:46.03
4. Kaisa Pajusalu (Estonia) 7:55.38
5. Annick de Decker (Belgium) 8:23.10
6. Anja Sesum (Slovenia) 8:34.47
Single scull – heat 2
1. Zhang Xiuyun (China) 7:35.20
2. Frida Svensson (Sweden) 7:39.80
3. Natasha Page (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:55.61
4. Natalia Huba (Ukraine) 8:00.15
5. Ivana Filipovic (Serbia 2) 8:11.79
Double scull
1. Anna Watkins/Katherine Grainger (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:45.13
2. Annekatrin Thiele/Britta Oppelt (Germany) 6:47.62
3. Wang Min/Zhu Weiwiei (China 1) 6:57.12
4. Inge Janssen/Elisabeth Hogerwerf (Netherlands) 7:04.90
5. Magdalena & Katharina Lobnig (Austria) 7:07.43
6. Krisztina Gyimes/Katalin Szabo (Hungary) 7:16.44
Quadruple scull
1. Beth Rodford/Melanie Wilson/Frances Houghton/Victoria Thornley (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:17.35
2. USA 6:18.66
3. China 6:23.14
4. Romania 6:34.04
MEN
Pair
1. George Nash/William Satch (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:34.36
2. Derk Noorduis/David Kuiper (Netherlands 1) 6:38.12
3. Sinisa & NIksa Skelin (Croatia) 6:41.17
4. Diego Lopez/Joaquin Iwan (Argentina) 6:44.20
5. Milan Dolecek Jr/Petr Melichar (Czech Republic 1) 7:02.48
Four
1. Alex Gregory/Pete Reed/Tom James/Andrew Triggs Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:50.55
2. Czech Republic 5:52.34
3. Belarus 5:56.14
4. Italy 1 6:04.20
5. Croatia 6:04.32
6. Slovenia 6:24.02
Eight
1. Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell/Alex Partridge/Richard Egington/Tom Ransley/Greg Searle/Moe Sbihi/James Foad/Matt Langridge/Phelan Hill (cox) (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:28.29
2. Poland 5:29.10
3. France 5:38.85
4. Ukraine 6:03.12
Single scull
1. Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:57.43
2. Karsten Brodowski (Germany) 7:03.96
3. Tim Maeyens (Belgium) 7:07.19
4. Aleksandr Aleksandrov (Azerbajan 1) 7:12.09
5. Andre Redr (Slovakia 2) 7:35.00
6. Urban Ulcar (Slovenia 3) 7:39.25
Double scull
1. Bill Lucas/Sam Townsend (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:12.08
2. Cedric Berrest/Julien Bahain (France) 6:13.51
3. Luka Spik/Itzok Cop (Slovenia) 6:21.76
4. Ariel Suarez/Cristian Rosso (Argentina) 6:23.83
5. Martin Basl/Jan Andrle (Czech 2) 6:37.34
6. Dmytro Mikhai/Artem Moroz (Ukraine 1) 6:46.14
Quadruple scull
1. Poland 5:46.17
2. Czech Republic 5:47.14
3. Matt Wells/Stephen Rowbotham/Charles Cousins/Marcus Bateman (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:47.15
4. Russia 5:47.93
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Single scull
1. Kathryn Twyman (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:49.69
2. Claire Lambe (Ireland) 7:54.91
3. Christina Sperrer (Austria 2) 8:00.09
4. Helena Pavkovic (Croatia) 8:00.85
Double scull
1. Sophie Hosking/Katherine Copeland (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:55.39
2. Rianne Sigmond/Maaike Head (Netherlands) 6:56.95
3. Kristin Hedstrom/Julie Nichols (USA) 6:58.44
4. Imogen Walsh/Andrea Dennis (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:03.05
5. Liu Jing/Pan Feihong (China 2) 7:05.70
6. Stefanie Borzacchini/Sara Karlsson (Austria) 7:06.22
MEN
Pair
1. Paul Mattick/Adam Freeman-Pask (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:31.76
2. Li Lei/Li Zhongwei (China) 6:34.86
3. Jens Vilhelmsen/Christian Pedersen (Denmark) 6:37.12
4. Tang Chiu Mang/Cheong Kwan Ki (Hong Kong) 6:39.78
Four
1. Peter Chambers/Rob Williams/Richard Chambers/Chris Bartley (GREAT BRITAIN) 5:52.30
2. China 5:53.77
3. Germany 6:03.48
4. New Zealand 6:05.69
5. Russia 6:08.42
6. Chile 6:15.99
Single scull
1. Jeremie Azou (France 1) 7:08.18
2. Michael Mottram (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:12.49
3. Richard Vanco (Slovakia) 7:14.42
4. Sun Jie (China) 7:17.05
5. Livio La Padula (Italy 2) 7:25.21
Double scull
1. Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:22.96
2. Zsolt Hirling/Tamas Varga (Hungary 1) 6:26.31
3. Guillaume Raineau/Alexandre Pilat (France) 6:33.41
4. Dominik Sigl/Oliver Komaromy (Austria 1) 6:36.00
5. Oksar Russberg/Dennis Bernhardsson (Sweden) 6:40.60
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CREW LISTS
SAMSUNG WORLD ROWING CUP I
Belgrade, Serbia, 4-6 May, 2012
GB ROWING TEAM CREWS LIST
(See home-towns, clubs and dates of birth in list below. Named here in crews bow to stroke unless indicated. (Coach in brackets).
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Helen Glover/Heather Stanning
(Robin Williams)
Eight
Jo Cook/Olivia Carnegie Brown/ Olivia Whitlam/Vicki Meyer-Lake/Jess Eddie/Emily Taylor/Katie Greves/Lindsey Maguire/Caroline O’Connor (cox)
(Nick Strange)
Single scull – Two boats
Rachel Gamble Flint
(Jane Hall)
Natasha Page
(Jane Hall)
Double scull
Anna Watkins/Katherine Grainger
(Paul Thompson)
Quadruple scull
Beth Rodford/Melanie Wilson/Frances Houghton/Victoria Thornley
(Ade Roberts)
MEN
Pair
George Nash/Will Satch
(Paul Stannard & Christian Felkel)
Four
Tom James/Alex Gregory/Peter Reed/Andrew Triggs Hodge
(Jurgen Grobler)
Eight
Nathaniel Reilly O Donnell/Alex Partridge/Ric Egington/Tom Ransley Greg Searle /Moe Sbihi/James Foad/Matt Langridge/ /Phelan Hill (cox)
(John West & Christian Felkel)
Single scull – two boats
Alan Campbell
(Bill Barry)
Tom Solesbury
(Mark Banks)
Double scull
Bill Lucas/Sam Townsend
(Mark Earnshaw)
Quadruple scull
Matt Wells/Stephen Rowbotham /Charles Cousins/Marcus Bateman
(Mark Banks)
LIGHTWEIGHTS
WOMEN
Single scull
Kathryn Twyman
(Paul Reedy)
Double scull – two boats
Sophie Hosking/Kat Copeland
(Paul Reedy)
Imogen Walsh/Andrea Dennis
(Paul Reedy)
MEN
Pair
Paul Mattick/Adam Freeman-Pask
(Rob Morgan)
Four
Peter Chambers/Rob Williams/Richard Chambers/Chris Bartley
(Rob Morgan)
Single
Mike Mottram
Double scull
Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter
(Darren Whiter)
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HOME TOWN LISTS
WOMEN
PAIR
Helen Glover Minerva Bath Penzance 17/06/86
Heather Stanning Army RC Lossiemouth 26/01/85
Coach: Robin Williams
Eight
Jo Cook Leander Club Sunbury-on-Thames 22/03/84
Olivia Carnegie-Brown Oxford Brookes Univ BC Oxford 28/03/1991
Olivia Whitlam Agecroft RC Warrington 16/09/85
Vicki Meyer-Lake Leander Club Premnay 18/03/1988
Jessica Eddie Univ of London BC Durham 07/10/84
Emily Taylor Leander Club Lincoln 28/06/87
Katie Greves Leander Club Oxford 02/09/82
Lindsey Maguire Wallingford RC Edinburgh 15/01/82
Caroline O’Connor (cox) Oxford Brookes Univ BC Ealing, London 25/04/83
Coach: Nick Strange
Single Scull (Boat 1)
Rachel Gamble-Flint Leander Club Darlington 13/09/91
Coach: Jane Hall
(Boat 2)
Natasha Page Gloucester RC Hartpury 30/04/85
Double Scull
Anna Watkins Leander Club Leek, Staffs. 13/02/83
Katherine Grainger St Andrew BC Aberdeen 12/11/75
Coach: Paul Thompson
Quadruple Scull
Beth Rodford Gloucester RC Gloucester 28/12/82
Melanie Wilson Imperial College BC London 25/06/84
Frances Houghton Leander Club Oxford 19/09/80
Victoria Thornley Leander Club Wrexham 30/11/87
Coach: Ade Roberts
MEN
Pair
George Nash Molesey BC Guildford 02/10/89
Will Satch Leander Club Henley-on-Thames 09/06/89
Coaches: Christian Felkel & Paul Stannard
Four
Tom James Molesey BC Wrexham 11/03/84
Alex Gregory Leander Club Wormington 11/03/84
Pete Reed Leander Club Nailsworth, Glos 27/07/81
Andrew Triggs Hodge Molesey BC Hebden, N. Yorks 03/03/79
Coach: Jürgen Grobler
Eight
Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell Uni of London BC Durham 13/04/88
Alex Partridge Leander Club Alton, Hants 25/01/81
Richard Egington Leander Club Knutsford 26/02/79
Tom Ransley York City RC Cambridge 06/09/85
Greg Searle Molesey BC Marlow 20/03/72
Mohamed Sbihi Molesey BC Surbiton 27/03/88
James Foad Molesey BC Southampton 20/03/87
Matthew Langridge Leander Club Northwich 20/05/83
Cox – Phelan Hill Leander Bedford 21/07/79
Coaches: John West & Christian Felkel
Single Scull
Alan Campbell Tideway Scullers School Coleraine 09/05/83
Coach: Bill Barry
Double Scull
Bill Lucas London RC Kingswear 13/09/87
Sam Townsend Reading Univ BC Reading 26/11/85
Coach: Mark Earnshaw
Quadruple Scull
Matthew Wells Leander Club Hexham, Northumberland 19/04/79
Stephen Rowbotham Leander Club Winscombe, Somerset 11/11/81
Charles Cousins Reading Univ BC Willingham, Cambs 13/12/88
Marcus Bateman Leander Club Torquay 16/09/1982
Coach: Mark Banks
LIGHTWEIGHTS
WOMEN
Single Scull
Kathryn Twyman Wallingford RC Oxford 29/03/87
Coach: Paul Reedy
Double Scull (Boat 1)
Sophie Hosking London RC Wimbledon 25/01/86
Katherine Copeland Tees RC Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees 01/12/90
Coach: Paul Reedy
Double Scull (Boat 2)
Imogen Walsh London RC Inverness 17/01/84
Andrea Dennis Imperial College BC Oxford 03/01/82
Coach: Paul Reedy
MEN
Pair
Paul Mattick Leander Club Frome, Somerset 25/04/78
Adam Freeman-Pask Imperial College BC Windsor 19/06/85
Coaches: Rob Morgan & Darren Whiter
Four
Peter Chambers Oxford Brookes Univ BC Coleraine 14/03/90
Rob Williams London RC Maidenhead 21/01/85
Richard Chambers Leander Club Coleraine 10/06/85
Chris Bartley Leander Club Chester 02/02/84
Coach: Rob Morgan
Single
Mike Mottram Leander Club Stoke Mandeville 08/06/1990
Double Scull
Zac Purchase Marlow RC Tewkesbury 02/05/86
Mark Hunter Leander Club Romford, Essex 01/07/78
Coach: Darren Whiter
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TIMETABLE OF RACING
Friday 4 May
Heats and repechages 09.00 – 18.30
Saturday 5 May
Quarter-finals, semi-finals:
09.00 – 16.30
FINALS (International classes only)
17.00 – 18.00
Sunday 6 May
09.20 – 10.30
B Finals – (Olympic classes)
FINALS – (Olympic classes)
The dates and venues for the other two world cups are:
SAMSUNG ROWING WORLD CUP II
Lucerne, Switzerland, 24-26 May
SAMSUNG ROWING WORLD CUP III
Munich, Germany, 15-17, June
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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about this event please contact:
Caroline Searle on (01225) 443998 or e-mail us on [email protected]
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and Twitter: @gbrowingteam
Pictures available for media editorial use via: [email protected]
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