GB Rowing Team's first London Olympic boat places booked
31st August 2011The GB Rowing Team won all three of its semis on a day when the women's pair and men's eight qualified for tomorrow's finals guaranteeing these boat slots for the nation at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Heather Stanning and Helen Glover led early and then moved incrementally ahead of China to win their pairs semi. Glover said: "As I crossed the line I was only thinking about today but it's also really exciting to have qualified for London. Hopefully, that will give the whole team a boost".
The men's eight, stroked by Dan Ritchie and featuring all new faces since GB's Beijing silver, except Alex Partridge, were next to win their semi in a strong performance over the Olympic champions from Canada.
"It was important to qualify for London and this is our last opportunity to have a full dress rehearsal with all of the best crews in the world before the Games next year", said Cameron Nichol. "So it's step two of three here and now we're looking forward to the final".
The British women's eight are also through to their final after taking an exciting repechage victory today.
GB women's eight won their Bled repechage in style today
"That was a definite step on for us today. We're in a good place going into the final", said Louisa Reeve, "but we're not qualified yet for the Games so the final is going to be a fight". Only five from six boats go forward to London from tomorrow's final.
Earlier World U23 Champions Kieren Emery and Peter Chambers were winners in the lightweight men's pair semi-final. Whilst theirs is not an Olympic class boat, the duo have already shown their ability to win on the big stage and are names for the future.
Britain's other successes today included a quarter-final win for Alan Campbell in the men's single scull. The Coleraine sculler now moves into Friday's semis.
He will be joined there by Olympic lightweight men's double champions Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase who eased down in the final 250m of a quarter-final in which they were second to the 2009 world champions from New Zealand.
Frances Houghton, Beijing Olympic quad scull silver medallist, dug deep to win her repechage of the women's single after another injury-affected season and progress to Friday's semi. Only nine boats qualify for London from this event so Houghton will need to at least finish in the top three of the B Final here.
Bled 2011's first medals will be decided tomorrow with finals in the women's pair, men's eight and lightweight men's pair - all featuring GB crews.
It will also be a tense day for the women's quad who race their B final in which a London 2012 place is on offer only for the winner.
World champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, will be in semi-final action as will the "Red Express", their male counterparts, 2010 world silver medallists Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman.
Britain's three other semi-finals include Richard Chambers, Paul Mattick, Chris Bartley and Rob Williams in the lightweight men's four, as well as the two lightweight single-scullers Kat Copeland and Adam Freeman-Pask. and reigning Paralympic champion single sculler, Tom Aggar.