Medal hopes in Lucerne
Great Britain’s rowers contest the season’s final world cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, starting Friday (13 July) and finishing on Sunday with hopes of medals despite injury problems for some leading Olympic-class boats.
With 876 athletes from 41 countries in action at the world cup finals in Lucerne, the opposition is likely to be tough.
The Camelot-backed men’s four, current world champions, will race with substitute Tom James on board after Alex Partridge was forced to pull out pre-Henley with an injury whilst the men’s and women’s eight are also affected.
Robin Bourne-Taylor will miss the regatta through injury and will be replaced in the Siemens-sponsored men’s eight line up by James Orme whilst Rebecca Rowe is due for a busy weekend. She will double up in the women’s four and the Siemens-backed women’s eight after Alison Knowles was forced out by injury.
Knowles had previously raced with Natasha Howard in the women’s pair. Natasha Page has stepped up from the eight to replace Knowles in that pair.
Conversely, the women’s quadruple scull, world champions and Camelot-sponsored, are back to full strength after Debbie Flood needed to take time out in late June because of illness. They were gold medallists in Linz, in the season’s opener, and silver medallists behind China in Amsterdam.
Lucerne also marks the first race this season for the Siemens-backed women’s double scull of Elise Laverick and Anna Bebington. They will be anxious to test their international mettle as a new combination before selections are announced on Thursday 19 July for the world championships.
Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells, by contrast, have already got a gold and silver under their belt and will be looking for another podium finish in the Siemens-sponsored men’s double scull. They, and Alan Campbell in the single, form part of one of Britain’s strongest sculling squads ever.
Colin Smith is back in a pair, after featuring in the winning eight in Amsterdam despite illness during the regatta, and will race with Matt Langridge. This Siemens-backed duo were gold medallists in the opening world cup regatta.
Britain’s lightweight Olympic-class squad, all sponsored by Siemens, has also been having a good season. Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase have emerged as a new duo to take two silvers so far whilst the lightweight men’s four won bronze in Linz and stepped up to silver in Amsterdam to create a few waves of excitement in the rowing world.
Britain also fields a men’s open weight quadruple scull which is a good mix of youth and experience and also races a lightweight men’s pair, men’s and women’s quadruple sculls and singles as well as Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell, Amsterdam world cup finalists, in the lightweight women’s double.
SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE
=============================== ===============================
GB CREWS FOR THIRD WORLD CUP OF 2007
(Lucerne, July 13-15 )
(NB – listed from bow to stroke with
athlete name followed by club, home town
and date of birth in brackets).
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.4.85)
Natasha Howard (Tideway Scullers/West Runton/3.9.80)
Four
Rebecca Rowe (Rebecca/Bridgend/16.5.81)/Vicki Etiebet (Auriol Kensington/Ottowa, Canada/12.2.79)/Vicky Myers/Alice Freeman
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 /18.12.79)/
Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/7.10.84)/Beth Rodford (Thames
RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/Rebecca Rowe (Rebecca/Bridgend/16.5.81)/Katie Greves (Uni of London/Oxford/2.9.82)/Louisa Reeve (Leander/London/16.05.84)/Caroline O’Connor
(Oxford Brookes/Ealing/25.4.83)
Double scull
Elise Laverick (Thames RC/Poling, W.Sussex/27.7.75)/
Anna Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.2.83)
Quadruple scull
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 Andrews BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)
MEN
Pair
Colin Smith (Leander/Henley on Thames/23.9.83)/Matt Langridge
(Leander Club/Northwich/20.5.83)
Four
Steve Williams (Leander Club/Cheltenham/15.4.76)/Peter
Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.7.81)/Tom James
(CUBC/Wrexham/11.3.84)/Andy Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/3.3.79)
Eight
Tom Parker (OUBC/Winchester/24.10.82)
Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.9.80)
Tom Lucy (Oxford Brookes/Monmouth/1.5.88)
Tom Stallard (Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.9.78)
Josh West (Leander/Santa Fe/25.3.77)
Richard Egington (Leander/Knutsford/26.2.79)
James Orme (Leander Club/Colchester/1.4.84)
Alastair Heathcote (Army RC/London/18.8.77)
Acer Nethercott (OUBC/Harlow/28.11.77)
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/Otley, 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
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
Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/2.5.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/1.7.78)
Quadruple scull
Chris Bartley/Simon Jones/Rob Williams/Dave Currie
UNDER-23 CREWS
OPEN
MEN
Double scull – competing in senior open event
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.9.87)/Charles Cousins
(Rob Roy/Willingham, Cambs/13.12.88)
