GB Rowers from Somerset in International Action
27th June 2011Olympic medallist rowers from across Somerset will be racing for Great Britain in front of home crowds at the Henley Royal Regatta this week in preparation for the final world cup in Lucerne.
Stephen Rowbotham, 29, from Winscombe, has represented GB at five World Championships and will compete at Henley against the Olympic champions Poland and the world champions Croatia in the men’s quad after finishing fourth at the first world cup of 2011 in Munich in May.
Rowbotham will be seeking to defend the Queen Mother Challenge Cup title he won last year in the quadruple sculls – this time with Sam Townsend, Bill Lucas and Tom Solesbury – but against top opposition this time round.
Marcus Bateman, 28, a 2010 world silver medallist in the men’s double scull with Matt Wells, learned to row while at the University of Bath and was a graduate of the GB Rowing Team’s talent identification and development programme ‘Start’, sponsored by Siemens.
The red-haired pairing nicknamed the 'Red Express' will be looking to continue their fine form winning silver in Munich.
World silver medallist Cameron Nichol, from Glastonbury, will be in the eye-catching Grand Challenge Cup as the GB men’s eight, racing as Molesey Boat Club and Leander Club, go head-to-head with rivals Germany.
The former basketballer turns 24 on Saturday (JUNE 26) and lines up with comeback Olympian Greg Searle in the boat’s latest milestone on the road to London 2012, 20 years after Searle won gold in Barcelona.
Nichol and the eight narrowly missed out on a gold at the 2010 World Rowing Championships by six-tenths of a second to Germany and came in a close second again at the Munich world cup.
James Foad replaces Will Satch in the otherwise unchanged eight from Munich of Alex Partridge, Foad, Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell, Nichol, Mohamed Sbihi, Searle, Tom Ransley, Dan Ritchie and cox Phelan Hill.
Nichol said: "I’m looking forward to Henley as it is one of the few chances I get to wear my club kit.
“I love the challenges it presents in terms of distractions and the psychology of Henley's head-to-head style racing.”
Ritchie, stroke for the men’s eight, described Henley as, “the closest thing we get to competing in a packed stadium” as every metre of the bank is lined with spectators.
He said: “Having not raced at the second world cup it has been a month since racing internationally and Henley is going to give us a great chance to test a few things between now and the Worlds.
“Henley is such a special place it really is the Mecca of rowing, nowhere in the world do you get the atmosphere of Henley.”
Former Millfield School pupil Helen Glover, 25, from the Minerva Bath Rowing Club won gold in Munich with Heather Stanning and got another two confidence boosting wins under her belt in the women’s pair at the Amsterdam International Regatta last weekend (JUNE 25-26).
Fellow gold medallists in Munich, Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking in the lightweight double sculls, also impressed on the continent at the “Holland Beker” event along with a significant number of U23 crews seeking selection for the World Rowing U23 Championships.
Double world champion Paul Mattick, born in Frome and brought up in Bath, will have to wait until Lucerne for a return to racing as the lightweight men's four stay home training at their Caversham base.
Likewise Vicky Thornley, who learned to row in Bath and worked for a while at the University there. She came into the sport through the UK Sport and English Institute of Sport recruitment drive 'Sporting Giants' and after switching from the women’s eight won bronze in the B finals in Munich in the single scull.
The GB team rowers are getting valuable race practice at Henley from June 29 – July 3 and in Amsterdam ahead of Lucerne on July 8-10 after the team pulled out of the second world cup in Hamburg on June 18-19 due to health concerns following the E.coli outbreak.
The GB men’s four will be out to build on their gold in Munich in the Stewards’ Challenge Cup against crews from Australia, USA, China and Belarus.
The GB Rowing Team, sponsored by Siemens and lottery funded, will also contest the men’s single, double and quadruple sculls at Henley while a solitary women’s boat, the eight, will seek to challenge the Olympic and world champions from America, favourites for the Remenham Challenge Cup.
Henley is traditionally a club event so the GB and other international crews enter under the rowers’ club names and take a rare chance to race in their club colours.
The GB team for the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia in late August and early September, which acts as qualification for boats at London 2012, will be announced on July 19th.