17 finalists for the GB Rowing Team at the season’s second world cup

Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge led a charge of six semi-final wins – from the men’s pair, four, double scull and quadruple scull as well as the lightweight men’s double scull and four – for the GB Rowing Team in Munich this afternoon at the season’s second world cup.

Their wins, plus four other top three finishes added to the boats that qualified from yesterday’s heats, means that the  GB Rowing Team now has a total of 15 Olympic class boats in tomorrow’s finals – a sparkling performance in  sharp contrast to the dull, grey skies and intermittent rain under which the regatta’s semi-final session played out.

“It’s been a strong performance today across the squad. A good indicator has been our support boats making the A final in both pairs events.  With some good wins we can look forward a strong finals day tomorrow”, said David Tanner the GB Rowing Team’s Performance Director.

Heather Stanning and Helen Glover as well as Cameron Nichol and Tom Burton in the pairs events were amongst the support boats to qualify.

Britain also had two finalists in the International Class boats today with Peter Chambers finishing sixth in the lightweight men’s single and Adam Freeman-Pask and Chris Boddy narrowly missing out on the medals in fourth place in the lightweight men’s pair.

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RACE REPORTS

Who won the vote for the most exciting semi-final of the day? Many observers would vote for the men’s four event featuring the British world champions and strong crews from the Czech Republic, New Zealand and the USA – despite the heaving rain falling on the course at that stage of play in Munich today.

New Zealand got off to a fast start and were ahead by 500m gone.   GB and the USA were locked together so tight that the timing mechanism could not separate them.  Just as the race reached its halfway point the  British quartet of Matt Langridge, Ric Egington, Alex Gregory and Alex Partridge edged ahead.

In the next 500m they stole a half-length lead over the USA but could not shake them off  entirely.  The Czech Republic finished fast to  take third with Britain just four tenths of a second ahead of the USA. Australia 1 and 2 were took the top two spots in the opposing semi – both recording marginally faster times than GB so  a close final could be in store tomorrow.

“I think we were perhaps too conservative in the first half today”, said Matt Langridge afterwards.  “Perhaps we could have given it a bit more and it was tight in the second half. It will be a different race tomorrow, it always is when you are going for gold rather than just trying to make sure that we get to the final”.

Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge, meanwhile, dominated their semi-final from start-gate to finish-line.  They were never troubled and rowed to a long and strong rhythm. You get the sense that they still enjoy the challenge of their pairs project this year despite their serial losses to Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, the world champions from New Zealand who await in tomorrow’s final.

“We have a lot of strength in our boat”, said Reed afterwards.  “When we were in  the four we kept on winning and whilst it’s not nice losing we will look back in two years time and draw on this period in our development”.

“Today was certainly a stepping stone in the right direction”, said Hodge.

Tom Burton and Cameron Nichol are also through to tomorrow’s final. They finished third behind Reed and Hodge and produced probably one of their best performances yet.  At the 1000m the two other qualifying places were being debated between South
Africa, GB and Hungary.  The former two began to pull away and were locked in  battle until the final 150m when South Africa proved stronger.

“We rowed a very good first 1500m today and then probably got a bit excited and tried to muscle it home”, said Burton.  “We’ve done some very good training pieces with  Pete and Andy (Reed and Hodge) back at home”.

“Our plan today was to focus on our own boat for the first 1250m and then to read the race from there”, added Nichol.

Alan Campbell is perhaps more wary now of Ondrej Synek, the Czech racer whom he beat in the last world cup semi-finals but who
turned the tables on him in the final to take gold ahead of the Northern Ireland sculler.

Today, therefore, he made a strong start in the men’s single scull semi-final and led at 500m but seemed content from then onwards to let Synek get out in front and lead the field home.  Secure in his qualifying slot, Campbell looked as if he was racing well within himself.

Canadian Malcolm Howard, meanwhile, produced a good performance to take third slot.  Germany’s Marcel Hacker won the opposing semi with Olympic champion Olaf Tufte in second.

If the men’s four was involved in the tightest of semi-finals perhaps one of the more consummate performances came from Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman for Great Britain in the men’s double scull who looked strong and smooth as they powered away from the field to win their semi-final ahead of France and Germany with Norway fourth.Wells and Bateman win semi in Munich

France were their nearest challengers for the first 1400m but could make little in-road into the GB lead in the second half.

The GB Rowing Team’s men’s quadruple scull have started their season here in Munich after missing out on Bled because of injury.  Charles Cousins, Bill Lucas, Sam Townsend and Stephen Rowbotham were determined to to put a marker down in today’s semi-final. Just after halfway they had their nose in front of Russia and were tenacious in keeping it there with Australia coming up into third place ahead of China in a tight finish.

“We were disappointed with our performance in the heats yesterday so we were determined to  lay down a marker in today’s race and find our level in this event”, said Rowbotham today.

“Personally, I’ve missed the pace of international racing and I also missed the trials so it feels good to be back”.

In similar style to the open weight men’s double scull, the GB Rowing Team’s lightweight men’s four were sharp off the start and smooth in their delivery to win and qualify for tomorrow’s final.  They led throughout and were not seriously challenged by France who took second.

The same could be said of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter who won their semi-final comfortably. By 500m they had almost a length on the field and they drove onwards to the finish line.  This was definitely a step up on their performance here in the heats for which Hunter had admitted his nervousness as the duo went back into action for the first time since winning in Beijing in the summer of 2008.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning are causing a bit of a stir here in the women’s pair event because they are a new squad pair who are  doing well. They qualified for tomorrow’s final with a controlled performance which included a good first half.

Tucked in behind New Zealand and China 1, they kept their rhythm and length to hold off China 2 as the race wound up for the line.

“We wanted to be in control of our race today”, said Glover.  “We’ve been working  on our starts”.

“We had confidence from yesterday’s repechage race in which we were leading. It gave us the confidence to be in control”, added Stanning.

Louisa Reeve and Jess Eddie were not so fortunate.  They have come together here as a scratch pairing and the unit has not really fired. With limited prior time in the boat together, they struggled to get in contention today and finished fifth. Both will no doubt now be raring to go  in tomorrow’s women’s eight final.

Andrea Dennis and Steph Cullen used today’s repechage to their advantage qualifying in second place in a time of 7:30.69 to reach tomorrow’s final.  They were overhauled in the second half of the race by Switzerland after leading early.

Earlier Peter Chambers produced a promising performance as an U23 entrant to reach the evening’s final of the lightweight men’s single scull ahead of the more favoured Maxine Goisset of France and behind New Zealander Duncan Grant the world champion.

In the final, he was in contention in a tight field through the first half, tracking Norway and France before finishing sixth overall on his senior world cup debut in this event.

Adam Freeman-Pask celebrated his birthday by  reaching the final of the lightweight men’s pair with Chris Boddy. The duo were leading at halfway in their semi before Denmark surged into the lead and went onto win leaving the British pair to fight off a charge from  Switzerland and Hong Kong to hold second place.

In the final, Switzerland 2 two took the lead from the outset with the British duo holding second until just after 1000m when Chile and the second Swiss boat came through to knock the British duo out of the medals.

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RESULTS
(Races featuring GB Rowing Team crews only.
Full results at www.worldrowing.com)

FINALS

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Pair

1.  Simon Schuerch (Switzerland2) 6;49.73
2.  Fabian Ouyarzun Zbinden/Miguel Cerda Silva (Chile) 6:50.80
3.  Lucas Tramer/Simon Niepmann( Switzerland 1) 6:54.16
4.  Adam Freeman-Pask/Chris Boddy (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:54.52
5.  Daniel Zielinski/Lasse Dittmann (Denmark) 6:56.25
6.  Mang Chiu Tang/Cheong Kwan Ki (Hong Kong) 7:02.08

Single scull

1.  Peter Galambos (Hungary) 7:11.76
2.  Duncan Grant (New Zealand) 7:14.11
3.  Are Strandli (Norway) 7:14.63
4.  Jonathan Koch (Germany 2) 7:15.93
5.  Maxime Goisset (France) 7:16.36
6.  Peter Chambers (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:19.74

SEMI-FINALS

OPEN

WOMEN
Pair
Semi-final 1
1.  Juliette Haigh/Rebecca Scown (New Zealand) 7:29.64
2.  Tong Li/Meng Li (China 1) 7:31.53
3.  Helen Glover/Heather Stanning (GREAT BRITAIN 3) 7:35.07
4.  Zhengping Sun/Meiling Sun (China 2) 7:37.60
5.  Sonja Keserac/Maja Anic (Croatia) 7:45.37
6.  Huan Zhang/Jiahuan Liu (China 4) 7:50.39

Semi-final 2
1.  Adelina Cojocariu/Nicoleta Albu (Romania 2) 7:33.72
2.  Kerstin Hartmann/Marlene Sinnig (Germany 1) 7:35.56
3.  Camelia Lupascu/Eniko Mironcic (Romania 1) 7:37.27
4.  Sarah Tait/Sarah Cook (Australia) 7:42.05
5. Jessica Eddie/Louisa Reeve (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 7:45.23
6.  Mayya Zhuchkova/Alevtina Podvyazkina (Russia) 7:46.73

MEN
Pair
Semi-final 2
1.  Peter Reed/Andrew Triggs Hodge (GREAT BRITAIN 1) 6:46.72
2.  Shaun Keeling/Ramon Di Clemente (South Africa) 6:51.61
3.  Cameron Nichol/Tom Burton (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 6:54.15
4.  Maciej Mattik/Zbigniew Schodowski (Poland) 7:00.91
5.  Adrian Juhasz/Jr Bela Simon (Hungary) 7:03.97
6.  El Bakry Yehia/Akrm Abdalshafy (Egypt 1) 7:36.94

Four

Semi-final 1

1.  Alex Partridge/Ric Egington/Alex Gregory/Matt Langridge
(GREAT BRITAIN) 6:12.63
2.  USA 6:13.00
3.  Czech Republic 6:13.69
4.  Serbia 1 6:14.22
5.  New Zealand 2 6:20.04
6.  China 2 6:28.73

Single scull

Semi-final 2

1.  Ondrej Synek (Czech Republic) 7:19.30
2.  Alan Campbell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:20.95
3.  Malcolm Howard (Canada) 7:22.31
4.  Zhang Liang (China) 7:27.70
5.  Falko Nolte (Germany 2) 7:38.62
6.  Mindaugas Griskonis (Lithuania 2) 7:54.23

Double scull
Semi-final 2

1. Matt Wells/Marcus Bateman (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:33.85
2.  Cedric Berrest/Julien Bahain (France) 6:36.56
3.  Eric Johannesen/Peter Sebastian (Germany) 6:39.38
4.  Nils Jakob Hoff/Kjetil Borch (Norway 1) 6:40.46
5.  Joseph Sullivan/Nathan Cohen (New Zealand) 6:49.91
6.  Herman Hontar/Artem Moroz (Ukraine 2) 6:50.48

Quadruple scull

Semi-final 2
1.  Stephen Rowbotham/Charles Cousins/Bill Lucas/Sam Townsend
(GREAT BRITAIN) 5:55.11
2.  Russia 5:55.99
3.  Australia 5:56.39
4.  China 5:57.54
5.  Switzerland 6:11.17
6.  Beglium 6:18.12

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Four

Semi-final 1
1.  Richard Chambers/Paul Mattick/Rob Williams/Chris Bartley
(GREAT BRITAIN) 6:13.15
2.  Czech Republic 6:15.73
3.  Austria 6:18.54
4.  South Africa 6:20.44
5.  China 6:20.64
6.  Australia 2 6:23.90

Single scull

Semi-final 2

1.  Duncan Grant (New Zealand) 7:25.31
2.  Peter Chambers (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:27.46
3.  Maxime Goisset (France) 7:30.34
4.  Alison Silva (Brazil) 7:41.63
5.  Lukas Babac (Slovakia) 7:43.92
6.  Joschka Hellmeier (Austria 2) 7:48.17

Double scull
Semi-final 2
1.  Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:41.60
2.  Jonathan winter/Brian De Regt (USA) 6:44.79
3.  Gerardo Sanchez Duran/Alan Eber Armenta Vega (Mexico) 6:45.81
4.  Matevz Malesic/Jure Cvet (Slovenia) 6:47.37
5.  Mariusz Stanczuk/Bartlomiej Lesniak (Poland) 6:52.85
6.  Robert Racz/Tamas Varga (Hungary) 7:03.88

REPECHAGES

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double scull

Repechage 1
1.  Pamela Weisshaupt/Olivia Wyss (Switzerland) 7:28.64
2.  Steph Cullen/Andrea Dennis (GREAT BRITAIN 2) 7:30.69
3.  Manuela Laimboeck/Michaela Taupe-Traer (Austria) 7:33.13
4.  Emma Fred/Cecilia Lilja (Sweden) 7:47.43
5.  Marie Gottlieb/Mia Espersen (Denmark) 7:48.64

MEN

Pair

1.  Daniel Zielinski/Lasse Dittmann (Denmark) 7:03.07
2.  Adam Freeman-Pask/Chris Boddy (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:05.37
3.  Lucas Tramer/Simon Niepmann (Switzerland 1) 7:06.27
4.  Mang Chiu Tang/Cheong Kwan Ki (Hong Kong) 7:06.42
5.  Rokuro Okumura/Yoshinori Sato (Japan) 7:06.58
6.  Michael Tichauner/Alexander Chernikov (Austria) 7:17.40

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GB ROWING TEAM ENTRIES
2010 Rowing World Cup, Munich, Germany (18-20 June)
(listed bow to stroke plus cox)

OPEN

WOMEN

Pairs – two boats

Jessica Eddie (Uni of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Louisa Reeve (LeanderClub/London/16.05.84)

Helen Glover (Reading Uni BC/Penzance/17.06.86)/
Heather Stanning (Army RC/Lossiemouth/26.01.85)

Eight

Jo Cook (Leander Club/Sunbury-on-Thames/22.03.84)/
Louisa Reeve (LeanderClub/London/16.05.84)/
Natasha Page (Reading Uni BC/Hartpury/30.04.85)/
Victoria Thornley (Minerva Bath/Wrexham/30.11.87)/
Jessica Eddie (Uni of London BC/Durham/07.10.84)/
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC/Edinburgh/15.01.82)/
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC/Warrington/16.09.85)/
Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.03.82)/
Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes Uni BC/Ealing/25.04.83) (cox)

Double scull

Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)/

Quadruple scull

Annabel Vernon (London RC/Wadebridge/01.09.82)/
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC/Gloucester/28.12.82)/
Anna Watkins (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.02.83)/
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

OPEN

MEN

Pair – two boats

Pete Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.07.81)/
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/03.03.79)

Cameron Nichol (Molesey/Glastonbury/26.6.87)/
Tom Burton (Leander Club/Barton-le-Clay, Beds/24.05.80)

Four

Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.01.81)/
Richard Egington (Leander Club/Knutsford/26.02.79)/
Alex Gregory (Leander Club/Wormington/11.03.84)/
Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.05.83)/

Eight

Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell (Uni of London/Durham/13.04.88)/
James Clarke (London RC/London/31.12.84)/
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/01.04.84)/
James Foad (Molesey BC/Southampton/20.03.87)/
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.03.88)/
Greg Searle (Molesey BC/Marlow/20.03.72)/
Tom Broadway (Leander Club/Newport Pagnell/21.08.82)
Daniel Ritchie (Herne Bay RC/Herne Bay/06.01.87)/
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club/Bedford/21.07.79)

Single scull – two boats

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/09.05.83)

Brendan Crean (Agecroft/Lewes/07.02.85)

Double scull

Matthew Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.04.79)
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.09.82)/

Quadruple scull

Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)/
Charles Cousins (Reading Uni BC/Cambridge/13.12.88)/
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni BC/Kingswear/13.09.87)/
Sam Townsend (Reading Uni BC/Reading/26.11.85)

LIGHTWEIGHT

WOMEN

Double scull – two boats

Hester Goodsell (Reading Uni BC/London/27.06.84)/
Sophie Hosking (London RC/Wimbledon/25.01.86)

Stephanie Cullen (London RC/Putney, London/27.11.80)/
Andrea Dennis (Reading Uni BC/Oxford/03.01.82)

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Pair

Chris Boddy (Leander Club/Stockton-on-Tees/16.11.87)/
Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC/Windsor/19.06.85)

Four

Richard Chambers (Leander Club/Coleraine/10.06.85)/
Paul Mattick (Leander Club/Frome, Somerset/25.04.78)/
Rob Williams (London RC/Maidenhead/21.01.85)/
Chris Bartley (Leander Club/Chester/02.02.84)

Single scull
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Uni RC/Coleraine/14.03.90)

Double scull
Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury/02.05.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/01.07.78)

COACHES

MEN’S SQUAD
Jurgen Grobler/Christian Felkel/Mark Earnshaw/Mark Banks/John West/Bill Barry/Paul Stannard

WOMEN AND LIGHTWEIGHTS SQUAD
Paul Thompson/Miles Forbes-Thomas/Ade Roberts/Darren Whiter/Rob Morgan/Paul Reedy

Management & Support Staff

David Tanner, Team Manager
Maggie Netto, Assistant TM