GB Rowing Team Crew from Somerset Head to World Cup Finals
6th July 2011Members of the GB Rowing Team from Somerset head to the world cup finals in Lucerne this weekend fuelled with desire after a stunning victory and a controversial defeat at the Henley Royal Regatta.
Stephen Rowbotham from Winscombe will race in the men's quadruple scull after shocking the World Champions from Croatia in front of huge crowds at Henley.
The 29-year-old, Olympic double sculls bronze medallist and team-mates Tom Solesbury, Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend came 4th at the first world cup of 2011 in Munich but upset the odds in the head-to-head racing at Henley ahead of Lucerne and the World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, at the end of August which double as qualifying for London 2012.
"To beat the World Champions like that on home water is pretty nice ahead of the Olympic Games," said Rowbotham.
By contrast Glastonbury's world silver medallist Cameron Nichol will try once more in Lucerne to find a way past the German World Champions after another narrow defeat in the men's eight with 1992 Olympic gold medallist Greg Searle.
They lost to the Germans by inches in the Worlds and in Munich and lost their appeal to the umpire over the visitors' steering on the Thames course which was used for the 1908 and 1948 Olympic regattas.
"Defeat is a bitter pill to swallow," said Nichol, shortly after the race. "We will use this and take the fight to Lucerne."
Current World Champion Paul Mattick from Frome returns in the lightweight men's four in Lucerne after being confined to training since Munich due to injury within his crew but not to Mattick himself and the GB Rowing Team's decision to pull out of the second world cup in Hamburg due to health fears.
"This year has been interrupted, but this has resulted in opportunities to try new things, to reinvent, to supersede an already fast unit," he said.
"And you know what, I'm very excited about trying out this new combination at Lucerne." The new combination consists of fellow 2010 World Champions Richard Chambers and Rob Williams and Richard's younger brother Peter in place of the injured Chris Bartley.
Helen Glover from the Minerva Bath Rowing Club won gold in Munich with Heather Stanning and they will race together again in Lucerne in the pair after wins in Holland last month.
"I am really looking forward to stepping on from some good racing in Munich and Amsterdam," said Glover, a former Millfield School pupil. "It's going to be a major part of our preparation for the World Championships so we want to learn as much as we can from this world cup."
Vicky Thornley, who learned to row while based at Bath University, has been selected for the women's eight after helping them reach the final of the Remenham Challenge Cup at Henley where they pushed the American World and Olympic Champions into breaking the course record to hold off the GB boat.
The men's other heavyweight crews cleaned up at Henley. The men's pair of Olympic men's four gold medallists Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge, single sculler Alan Campbell and the men's four all won against strong opposition.
But Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman, who learned to row while at University in Bath, had a performance in the double scull to match Rowbotham's with a scorching victory over the reformed Australian double of reigning Olympic champions.
“It’s good to be back in the momentum of racing," said Bateman. "It’s a great feeling to get one on the Olympic champions. But in the doubles event you can’t write anyone off. I’m sure they will be in the mix at the Worlds".
They also broke 29-year-old record for time to the Barrier belonging to Adam Clift and Sir Steve Redgrave and demolished the overall course record by five seconds in the semi-final.
For Lucerne, former world junior and under-23 medallists Constantine Louloudis and George Nash - opponents in the 2011 Boat Race - have earned a call-up to race in the pairs with world silver medallists Reed and Triggs Hodge, who face World Champions Eric Murray and Hamish Bond for the first time in 2011.
Anna Watkins returns after injury to partner three-times Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger in the double scull, and Olympic gold medallist Mark Hunter will race with Adam Freeman-Pask in the lightweight pair while his team-mate from Beijing, Zac Purchase, recovers from a virus. Campbell will not travel to Lucerne after suffering a sore throat since Henley and the team deciding not to risk him.