Day of sharp contrasts
On a day at the World Championships in Munich when the British women’s eight, backed by Siemens, celebrated reaching the final and when the men’s eight won their repechage to move into the semi-finals, the British men’s quadruple scull, featuring a brace of young development athletes, were narrowly edged into third place in their repechage and lost hope of a place in Beijing next year from this regatta – although there is a second chance to snatch a place at next year’s World Cup Finals in Lucerne.
There was also a comfortable victory for Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase in the lightweight men’s double scull with a second place for the lightweight men’s four in today’s quarter-finals. For both Siemens-sponsored Olympic boat classes this means a smooth progression into Friday’s semi-finals.
Britain’s lightweight women’s double scull were also winners today in their repechage. The Siemens-backed crew will now line up in the semis on Friday whilst the lightweight men’s quadruple scull are through to Sunday’s final after winning their repechage today.
"All in all we’ve had a good day today. There was a particularly good performance from our women’s eight who raced extremely well to reach the A final on Sunday", said GB Performance Director David Tanner.
Tomorrow’s racing in Munich will include semi-finals for the Camelot-backed men’s four and for the Siemens-sponsored men’s pair, double and single sculls as well as the women’s pair and double scull. All of these are Olympic boat classes. Three adaptive – or Paralympic – classes, Siemens-backed, will also race semis as will Britain’s two lightweight single scullers in International class events.
Racing starts at 8.50am UK time and finishes at 1pm.
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RACE REPORTS
"We went out today like our lives depended on it", explained Caroline O’Connor of the GB women’s eight’s flying start in today’s repechage from which only two places were available for Sunday’s final. "We remembered the disappointment of not making the final at Eton last year and we were determined not to feel the same here. That said, we now still have a job to do in the final on Sunday to pay back all the work that we and our coaches Paul Thompson and John Keogh have put in for us".
Five boat spaces from six starters will be available for Beijing next year from that final.
In the meantime the Siemens-backed eight were able to bask in the glory of today’s headline performance. They went out hard, despite the drama of an earlier restart due to a faulty start procedure, and kept pace with the early American leaders. The two boats gradually opened up a gap on the chasing Chinese and New Zealanders and never relented.
By the line, which the Americans crossed in 6:22.20, there were almost three seconds separating the British in second from the Kiwis in third.
Not to be outdone, the British men’s eight went to the line next for their repechage, cheered on vociferously in the early part of the race by their female counterparts who were still on the water in the warm-down lanes.
The British, racing once more with Tom James at bow as a sub for the still poorly Tom Parker, got a good start and were closely challenging Poland, the early race leaders, with Belarus in third. Gradually the Siemens-sponsored British combination clawed back territory until they emerged with their bow ahead of the Poles by the 1500m mark and pushed on to win in 5:44.57.
"They did what we asked them to do", said coach Mark Banks afterwards. "They slightly overcooked the second 500m in the heats and we didn’t want that to happen again". The win puts Britain into Friday’s semi-finals.
Good timing characterised Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase’s victory in today’s lightweight men’s double scull quarter-final. The Siemens-backed duo sat in the leading pack until deciding to make a move on the Greek and Chinese as the race moved past the grandstand.
Their win in 6:37.88 was described as "confident" by Purchase after the race. "Now in the semis on Friday, it’s a question of putting ourselves in a place where we can do well in the final", he added.
Second place behind Canada for Britain in the lightweight men’s four also means that this Siemens-backed boat is through to a semi on Friday. Yet this season’s new quartet were not entirely pleased with their performance – such is their will to improve with each race.
"We didn’t get as good a wind-up into the (finish) line as we would have liked", said Paul Mattick afterwards. "But we’re in the semis, so it’s job done".
This was a race in which Canada led from the outset but one in which the British edged ahead briefly with 1300m gone only to see the Canadians surge back and regain the lead to win in 6:14.73 with GB finishing in 6:15.76. The Netherlands were third.
Helen Casey and Hester Goodsell recovered well from the pain of defeat by just four hundredths of a second in the heats to win their repechage comfortably today in 7:23.43. America made the early running and were ahead at the half-way point with the Britons in second before taking the lead themselves to win in 7:23.43. They now race a semi-final on Friday.
Britain’s open weight men’s quadruple scull is, according to British Performance Director, David Tanner, a 12-month long development boat. As such, it came very, very close to success today in the repechages.
The crew, with Sam Townsend and Alex Gregory making their world championships level debut here, gave themselves options throughout the first four-fifths of the race by staying in contention with race leaders Australia and Cuba. As the boats paralleled the grandstand it looked as if the British might just pip Cuba in the sprint to the line only to be sorely disappointed. Australia were the winners and Cuba went through with them to the semis with Britain third in 6:07.67.
Earlier in the morning the British lightweight men’s quadruple scull were winners of their repechage, too, putting them through to the final on Sunday. This was a race which Britain led from the outset with Germany, the USA and Denmark all jockeying for position behind them.
Finally, the British men’s coxed four, racing with reserve Tom Wilkinson on board in lieu of Tom James who has moved up into the men’s eight to cover for the still poorly Tom Parker, in their first outing here, were fourth in today’s seeding race for their final on Sunday.
Britain now has 15 semi-final crews in action in the next two days, including Paralympic boat classes, and six already qualified for finals. Only the lightweight men’s pair of Daniel Harte and Matt Beechey still have a repechage to complete which takes place on Friday.
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RACING TIMETABLE
Racing in Munich from now on takes place
as follows (full timetable
at www.worldrowing.com):
30 and 31 August
Semi-finals – featuring 15 GB boats
Repechage – (31 August) – Lightweight men’s pair only.
FINALS
1 and 2 September
(Full details: www.worldrowing.com and click on media
center before selecting events).
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RESULTS – Day four/29 August
(races featuring GB crews only. Full results:
www.worldrowing.com)
QUARTER-FINALS
LIGHTWEIGHT
MEN
Four
1. Canada 6:14.73
2. Richard Chambers/James Lindsay-Fynn/Paul Mattick/
James Clarke (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:15.76
3. Netherlands 6:16.22
4. Serbia 6:17.87
5. Spain 6:27.18
6. Indonesia 6:41.90
Double scull
1. Zac Purchase/Mark Hunter (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:37.88
2. Dimitrios Mougios/Vasileios Polymeros 6:38.94
3. Zhang Guolin/Sun Jie (China) 6:41.28
4. Kristof Dekeyser/Wouter van der Fraenen (Belgium) 6:47.53
5. Cam Yilmaz/Ahmet Yumrukaya (Turkey) 6:48.28
6. Nuno Mendes/Pedro Fraga (Portugal) 6:51.20
REPECHAGES
OPEN
WOMEN
Eight
1. USA 6:22.20
2. Carla Ashford/Baz Moffat/Alice Freeman/Louisa Reeve/
Natasha Howard/Alison Knowles/Katie Greves/Jess Eddie/
Caroline O’Connor (cox) 6:23.58
3. New Zealand 6:26.99
4. China 6:27.23
MEN
Eight
1. Tom James/Tom Stallard/Tom Lucy/Tom Solesbury/
Josh West/Richard Egington/Robin Bourne-Taylor/
Alastair Heathcote/Acer Nethercott (cox) 5:44.58
2. Poland 5:47.02
3. Belarus 5:48.52
4. New Zealand 5:52.54
5. Italy 5:56.95
Quadruple scull
1. Australia 6:05.90
2. Cuba 6:05.95
3. Simon Fieldhouse/Sam Townsend/Alex Gregory/Ian
Lawson (GREAT BRITAIN) 6:07.67
4. Argentina 6:10.24
5. Egypt 6:14.13
6. Romania 6:16.02
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Double scull
1. Helen Casey/Hester Goodsell (GREAT BRITAIN) 7:23.43
2. Misaki Kumakura/Akiko Iwamoto (Japan) 7:25.65
3. Wendy Tripician/Jana Heere (USA) 7:26.72
4. Niamh Ni Cheilleacher/Sinead Jennings (Ireland) 7:28.54
5. Anniken Ellingsen/Hilde Gudem (Norway) 7:40.72
6. Sevara Ganiyeva/Zarrina Ganieva (Uzbekhistan) 8:00.31
MEN
Quadruple scull
1. Simon Jones/Robert Williams/Chris Bartley/Dave Currie
(GREAT BRITAIN) 6:08.70
2. Germany 6:10.20
3. USA 6:11.47
4. Denmark 6:12.98
5. Serbia 6:19.82
6. Hungary 6:22.97
RACE FOR LANES
OPEN
MEN
Coxed four
1. USA 6:19.10
2. Germany 6:19.39
3. Netherlands 6:26.80
4. James Orme/Marcus Bateman/Tom Wilkinson/Oli Moore
(GREAT BRITAIN) 6:27.49
5. Italy 6:29.14
6. Serbia 7:36.88
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GB CREWS FOR THE 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
(Munich, August 26 – September 2, 2007)
(NB – listed from bow to stroke as on the day
of the selection announcement – with
athlete name followed by club, home town
and date of birth in brackets. NB some seat order
changes have taken place – see above results each
day).
OPEN
WOMEN
Pair
Beth Rodford (Thames RC/Burton-on-Trent/ 28.12.82)/
Natasha Page (Reading Uni/Hartpury/30.4.85)
Coach: John Keogh
Four
Georgina Menheneott (Mortlake, Anglian & Alpha RC/North Bradley,
Wilts/18.12.79)/Rebecca Rowe (Rebecca/Bridgend/16.5.81)/
Vicki Etiebet (Auriol Kensington/Ottowa, Canada/12.2.79)/
Vicky Myers (Leander/Cheshire/31.3.81)
Coach: Nathan Williams
Eight
Carla Ashford (Thames RC/Northallerton/13.3.79)/Baz Moffat
(Thames RC/Bradford/8.4.78)/Alice Freeman (Wallingford RC/Oxford/
6.9.78)/Louisa Reeve (Leander/London/16.05.84)/Natasha Howard (Tideway Scullers/West Runton/3.9.80)/Alison Knowles (Thames RC/
Bournemouth/27.3.82)/Katie Greves (Uni of London/Oxford/2.9.82)
Jess Eddie (Uni of London/Durham/7.10.84)/Caroline O’Connor
(Oxford Brookes/Ealing/25.4.83) (cox)
Coaches: John Keogh
Double scull
Elise Laverick (Thames RC/Poling, W.Sussex/27.7.75)/
Anna Bebington (Leander Club/Leek, Staffs/13.2.83)
Coach: Miles Forbes Thomas
Quadruple scull
Annie Vernon (Thames RC/Wadebridge/1.9.82)/Debbie Flood
(Leander Club/Leeds/27.2.80)/Fran Houghton
(Uni of London/Oxford/19.9.80)/Katherine Grainger
(St Andrews BC/Aberdeen/12.11.75)
Coach: Paul Thompson
MEN
Pair
Colin Smith (Leander/Henley on Thames/23.9.83)/
Matt Langridge(Leander Club/Northwich/20.5.83)/
Coach: Jurgen Grobler
Four
Steve Williams (Leander Club/Cheltenham/15.4.76)/Peter
Reed (Leander Club/Nailsworth, Glos/27.7.81)/Alex Partridge
(Leander Club/Alton, Hants/25.1.81)/Andy Triggs Hodge
(Molesey BC/Hebden, N.Yorks/3.3.79)
Coach: Jurgen Grobler
Coxed four
Oli Moore (Imperial/Burford)/James Orme (Leander Club/
Colchester/1.4.84)/Marcus Bateman (Leander Club/Torquay/
16.9.82)/Tom James (CUBC/Wrexham/11.3.84)/Phelan Hill (London
RC/London/21.7.79) – cox
Coach: Richard Tinkler
Eight
Tom Parker (OUBC/Winchester/24.10.82)/Tom Stallard
(Leander/Welwyn, Herts/11.9.78)/Tom Lucy (Oxford Brookes/
Monmouth/1.5.88)/Tom Solesbury (Molesey BC/Petts Wood, Kent/23.9.80)/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/18.8.77)/Acer Nethercott (OUBC/Harlow/28.11.77) (cox)
Coaches: Mark Banks, John West
Single Scull
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers/Coleraine/9.5.83)
Coach: Bill Barry
Double Scull
Matt Wells (Leander Club/Hexham, Northumberland/19.4.79)/
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club/Winscombe, Somerset/11.11.81)
Coach: Mark Earnshaw
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)
Coach: Steve Gunn
LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Single scull
Andrea Dennis (Wallingford RC/Oxford/03.01.82)
Coach: Rob Dauncey
Double scull
Helen Casey (Wallingford RC/Oxford/6.2.74)/
Hester Goodsell (Rob Roy/Cambridge/27.6.84)
Coach: Robin Williams
Quadruple scull
Sophie Hosking (Durham Uni/Wimbledon/25.01.86)Laura Greenhalgh (Rob Roy/Oxford/2.9.85)/Mathilde Pauls (Imperial College BC/Berlin & Putney/26.09.83)/ Jane Hall (Leander/Caversham/20.10.73),
Coach: Rob Dauncey
MEN
Pair
Matt Beechey (Leander/Worcester/3.4.77)/Daniel
Harte (London/Edinburgh/12.12.75)
Coach: Paul Reedy
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)
Coach: Robin Williams
Single scull
Alasdair Leighton-Crawford (Tideway Scullers/Richmond-upon-Thames/
09.12.81) – racing spare.
Double scull
Zac Purchase (Marlow RC/Tewkesbury, Glos/2.5.86)/
Mark Hunter (Leander Club/Romford, Essex/1.7.78)
Coach: Darren Whiter
Quadruple scull
Simon Jones (Leander/Henley/8.6.78)Rob Williams (London
RC/Maidenhead/21.1.85)//Chris Bartley (Wallingford/Chester/
2.2.84)/Dave Currie (Leander/Bridgend/10.1.82)
Coach: Rob Morgan
ADAPTIVE CREWS
WOMEN
Single scull
Helene Raynsford (Guildford RC/Frimley/29.12.79)
Coach: Chad King
MEN
Single scull
Tom Aggar (Royal Docks/Barnet, London/24.5.84)
Coach: Chad King
MIXED
Mixed adaptive coxed four
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)/
Vicki Hansford (Guildford RC/Lewisham/31.10.79)/
Alan Sherman (cox)
Coach: Chad King
Double scull
Karen Cromie (Royal Docks BC/Ballinamalllard, Co.Fermanagh/
24.9.79)/James Roberts (Swansea/11.5.86)
Coach: Chad King
SPARES
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC/Warrington/16.9.85)
Tom Wilkinson (Leander/Henley/4.7.85)
Charles Burkitt (Leander/Reading/28.4.86)
Bill Lucas (Reading Uni/Dartmouth/13.9.87)
Atlanta St John (Reading Uni/North Leigh, Oxon/13.1.87)
TEAM MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT
Team Manager: David Tanner
Assistant Team Manager: Maggie Netto
Doctor: Ali Sanders
Chief Coach Men: Jurgen Grobler
Chief Coach Women and Lightweights: Paul Thompson
Logistics Manager: Maurice Hayes
Adaptive boats coordinator: Louise Kingsley
Lead Physio: Mark Edgar
Physios: Pam Gardiner, Gill Edmondson, Mike Chisholm
Physiologist: Al Smith
Pyschologist: Chris Shambrook
Nutritionist: Wendy Martinson
Sponsorship Liaison Manager: Fran Bullock
Drivers: Phil Tinsley, John Brockway
Press Officer: Caroline Searle
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OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC QUALIFYING DETAILS
Each nation competing in Munich will be seeking to
qualify for Olympic Games’ quota places, available for
each event. It is important to remember, though, that
it is the "boats" that qualify in Munich and at the later
regattas (see below). In Britain’s case the individual "rowers’
names" will not be put to the places in each boat
until late June, 2008.
Events (with quota places available in Munich)
MEN
Single scull (11)
Pair (11)
Double scull (11)
Four (11)
Quadruple scull (11)
Eight (7)
WOMEN
Single scull (9)
Pair (8)
Double scull (8)
Quadruple scull (7) – GB qualified (27/08/07)
Eight (5)
LIGHTWEIGHT MEN
Double scull (11)
Four (11)
LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN
Double scull (8)
If British boats do not gain a quota place in any given
event in Munich, there will be one further chance
via the final qualifying regatta in June of 2008 in
Lucerne, Switzerland where a small number of
further quota places will be available but for which
the competition will be fierce.
ADAPTIVE BOAT CLASSES
Each adaptive boat class has eight spaces
available in Munich for Beijing 2008. For those
who do not qualify in Munich there will be a
second-chances at the world cup from
9-11 May, 2007.
Women’s arms only single scull – qualified 28/08/07
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CONTACT DETAILS
For media enquiries about British Rowing please contact:
Caroline Searle
T: (01225) 383518
M: (07831) 755351
GB Rowing website www.biro.org.uk – full biogs available
here.
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