GB announces crews for second world cup

Great Britain’s rowers return to world cup action next weekend (22-24 June) in Amsterdam  after their successes of 10 days ago in Linz, winning eight Olympic class medals including four golds.

Linz attracted a record world-cup entry but as the season unfolds the British rowers can expect greater oppposition in various events and there have been some changes in the GB line-up, too.

Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells part of a strong GB sculling group, took their first world cup gold in the men’s double scull, sponsored by Siemens, in Linz in one of the world cup’s closest races with only two feet separating all six boats in the final at times.  They will be seeking to consolidate their success.

Alan Campbell, silver medal winner in the men’s single scull from a strong field, looks set to face the additional challenge of racing his friend and sometime training partner Mahe Drysdale, the New Zealander who is world champion, in Amsterdam.

The Camelot-sponsored women’s quadruple scull of Katherine Grainger, Fran Houghton, Debbie Flood and Annie Vernon were peerless champions in Linz, blasting away from the field, building a big lead and never looking back.  They know, however, that the opposition is likely to strengthen as the season progresses.

"It was a fantastic race. We wanted to sharpen ourselves technically, to put in longer strokes and find our rhythm", said Katherine Grainger of their Linz efforts.  "But we know that other nations, particularly the Chinese,  will almalgamate and come back faster as the season progresses so we’ve still got a lot to do".

The open women’s squad, in which Natasha Howard and Alison Knowles race in the pair once more, also contains the women’s eight who were more than delighted to take silver in Linz.  However Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington will once more miss international action in the women’s double scull as Bebington needs a little longer to recover from a recent injury.

Britain’s lightweight men’s double scull of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter produced a good world cup opener to take silver as did the lightweight men’s four, winning bronze.  Both crews, sponsored by Siemens, will seek to learn and grow at Amsterdam as will Hester Goodsell and Helen Casey in the lightweight women’s double scull who so narrowly missed a berth in the final ten days ago.

Britain will once more field two non-olympic lightweight single scullers in Andrea Dennis and Alasdair Leighton Crawford alongside Matt Beechey and Daniel Harte who won bronze in the lightweight men’s pair in Linz.

The GB men’s eight remains relatively unchanged for the contest ahead. They were fifth in Linz and will be looking to sharpen their race speed in  Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, an innovative move means that the Camelot-sponsored GB men’s world champion four and the Siemens-backed GB men’s pair – both gold medal winners in Linz – will also race in an eight. 

This is part of a desire to keep things "fresh" in this crucial season which will culminate in the battle for World Championship medals and Olympic qualifying places in August in Munich.

This means that Andy Hodge, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and Steve Williams from the four will join Colin Smith and Matt Langridge, who won so sensationally on their world cup debut in the pair, and Marcus Bateman and James Orme in a second British eight to be coxed by Phelan Hill.

"This is something completely different as we strive to offer continual challenges to our leading rowers", said GB Rowing Performance Director David Tanner. 

Britain will also field an adaptive mixed coxed four in Amsterdam of Vicki Hansford, Naomi Riches, Alastair Mckean and Alan Crowther.  This will be coxed by Tamsin Cottle. This is the  Paralympic boat class in which Great Britain holds the world title.

The Great Britain squad in Amsterdam will contain additional crews who are from the U23 squad. These contain medallists from the world junior and world U23 championships of last year as well as from this year’s Australian Youth Olympic Festival.  They will all benefit from the experience of top-class racing and are all under consideration for selection to GB’s U23 team for the World U23 Championships taking place in Strathclyde, Scotland, in July of this year.

This section of the squad includes a men’s four, men’s double scull , women’s quadruple scull and a women’s pair.

Finally, Britain will race a second open women’s quadruple scull in the open weight category but this will be raced by lightweight scullers including Jane Hall, Mathilde Pauls, Sophie Hosking and Laura Greenhalgh.

For further information on GB Rowing: Caroline Searle ([email protected] OR 07831) 755351.

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GB CREWS FOR SECOND WORLD CUP OF 2007
(Amsterdam, June 22-24)) (NB – listed from bow to stroke with  athlete name followed by club, home town and date of birth in brackets).

OPEN
WOMEN

Pair – two boats

Alison Knowles (Thames RC/Bournemouth/27.3.82)/Natasha Howard (Tideway Scullers/West Runton/3.9.80)

Second boat – see U23 section below

Eight

Baz Moffat (Thames RC/Bradford/8.4.78)/Carla Ashford (Thames RC/Northallerton/13.3.79)/Georgina Menheneott (Mortlake, Anglian & Alpha RC/North Bradley, Wilts /18.12.78)/ Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/7.10.84)/Beth Rodford (Thames RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.4.85)/Katie Greves (Uni of London/Oxford/2.9.82)/Louise Reeve (Leander/…./16.05.84)/Caroline O’Connor (Oxford Brookes/ Ealing/25.4.83)

Quadruple scull – three boats

Debbie Flood (Leander Club/Leeds/27.2.80)/Annie Vernon (Thames RC/Wadebridge/1.9.82)/Fran Houghton (Uni of London/Oxford/19.9.80)/Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)

Second boat – see LIGHTWEIGHT section below

Third boat – see U23 section below

MEN

Pair – two boats

Jonno  Devlin (Oxford Brookes/Putney/17.3.76)/Kieran West (CUBC/West Byfleet/18.9.77)

Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.9.80)/Tom James (CUBC/Wrexham/11.3.84)

Four

See U23 section below

Eight – two boats

Tom Parker (OUBC/Winchester/24.10.82)/Tom Stallard (Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.9.78)/Tom Lucy(Oxford Brookes/Monmouth/1.5.88)/Hugo Lee (Oxford Brookes/Jedburgh/5.3.84)/ Josh West (Leander/Santa Fe/25.3.77)/Richard Egington (Leander/Knutsford/26.2.79)/Robin Bourne-Taylor (Army RC/Oxford/22.7.81)/Alastair Heathcote (Army RC/London/18.08.77)/Acer Nethercott (OUBC/Harlow/28.11.77)

Alex Partridge (Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.1.81)/ Colin Smith  (Leander/Henley on Thames/3.9.83)/ James Orme  (Leander Club/Colchester/1.4.84)/Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/16.9.82)/Peter Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.7.81)/Andy Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/3.8.79)/Matt Langridge (Leander Club/Northwich/20.5.83)/Steve Williams  (Leander Club/Cheltenham/15.4.76)/Phelan Hill (London RC) (Cox)

Single Scull

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/9.5.83)

Double Scull – two boats

Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.4.79)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)

Second boat – see U23 section below

Quadruple scull

Simon Fieldhouse (Molesey/Thames Ditton/4.9.76)/Sam Townsend
(Reading Uni/Reading/26.11.85)/Alex Gregory (Reading Uni/
Wormington/11.3.84)/Ian Lawson (Leander/Oltey, W.Yorks/4.3.77)

LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN

Single scull

Andrea Dennis (Wallingford RC/Oxford/03.01.82)

Double scull

Helen Casey (Wallingford RC/Oxford/6.2.74)/Hester Goodsell (Rob Roy/Cambridge/27.6.84)

Quadruple scull – NB racing in the Open weight category

Laura Greenhalgh/Jane Hall (Leander/Caversham/20.10.73), Mathilde Pauls (Imperial College BC/Berlin &Putney/26.09.83)/ Sophie Hosking (Durham Uni/Wimbledon/25.01.86)

MEN

Pair

Matt Beechey (Leander/Worcester/3.4.77)/Daniel Harte (London/Edinburgh/12.12.75)

Four

Richard Chambers (Oxford Brookes/Coleraine/10.6.85)/ James Lindsay-Fynn (London/Trim/29.9.75)/Paul Mattick (Wallingford/Oxford/25.4.78)/James Clarke (London RC/ London/13.12.84)

Single scull

Alasdair Leighton-Crawford (Tideway Scullers/Richmond-upon-Thames/09.12.81)

Double scull

Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/1.7.78)/ Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/2.5.86)

ADAPTIVE

Vicki Hansford )Guildford RC/Lewisham/31.10.79) /Naomi Riches (Marlow RC/Harrow Weald/15.6.83)/ Alastair Mckean (Herne Bay ARC/Whitstable/14.4.79)/ Alan Crowther (Nottingham BC/Derby/29.7.65)/Tamsin Cottle (cox

UNDER-23 CREWS

OPEN
WOMEN

Pair
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft/Warrington/19.9.85)/Heather Stanning (Uni of Bath/Lossiemouth/26.1.85

Quadruple scull
Tina Stiller (Nottingham RC/Yarm, N.Yorks/23.6.87/Jacqui Round (Nottingham RC/St Neots/1.7.87)/Lauren Fisher (Reading Uni/Reading/17.2.86)/Franki Jus-Burke (Nottingham RC/
Nottingham/3.1.87)

MEN

Four
Oliver Moore (Imperial BC/Burford/3.1.87)/Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC/Surbiton/27.3.88)/ Cameron Nichol (Uni of London/ Chiswick/22.12.85)/Colin Scott (CUBC/Cambridge/6.4.85)

Double scull
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.9.87)/Charles Cousins (Rob Roy/Willingham, Cambs/13.12.88)