Somerset Rower Wins 2012 GB Trial
12th March 2012Helen Glover and her rowing partner Heather Stanning lived up to their billing as favourites at the GB rowing trials in a dress rehearsal for London 2012 on the Olympic course.
Former Millfield pupil Glover and Stanning both came through the GB Rowing Team START programme in Bath before winning World silver in the pair in 2010 and 2011 – and all but cemented their places in the pair for the 2012 season by winning the GB trials.
Glover said: “We executed what we planned with a bit more to come. We really wanted to come here and relish it. It was our opportunity to race at the Olympic track which is very exciting.”
GB Performance Director David Tanner predicted that Sunday’s racing in the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials would be the most competitive ever seen at a Trials and that is how it turned out to be.
Frome’s Beijing Olympian Paul Mattick, a sweep (one-oar) specialist finished third in the final of the lightweight men’s single scull trial while Winscombe’s Olympic bronze medallist Stephen Rowbotham came a solid fourth in the final of the open weight men’s single.
Mattick is bidding to retain his place in the lightweight men’s four which won World bronze in 2011 and gold in 2010 and Rowbotham is on course for one of the seven spots in the men’s sculling squad.
“There’s a lot of people missing in the lightweight field but there was still a decent amount of quality,” said Mattick. “And personally I thought I delivered a good race. I’m excited about next time we come to Dorney.”
Olympic gold medallists in the lightweight double scull Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter as well as Mattick’s sweep rowing crewmates from last season Rob Williams and Rich Chambers were forced to miss the trials but are still in contention for the squad.
“It is difficult as I want to be able to show how fast I can make the boat go (in testing),” said Mattick. “But it is really exciting to be part of this team. We want to continue to deliver medals and I think experience comes in to that to a large extent.”
Rowbotham, who raced in the men’s quadruple scull last season, survived a tight race on Saturday to make Sunday’s final and said: “It’s nice to be back racing. The winter training seems a long time. It’s good to be able to show your fighting spirit and your competitiveness.
“The trials this year were bigger for the rowers with the crowd but it will be a bit different when it’s 40,000 people. Today was more about what we can get from within rather than outside (from the crowd) but at the Olympic Games the crowd is definitely worth a few seconds.”
The Olympic course showed itself off in the sunshine as Katherine Grainger beat her world champion women’s double scull partner Anna Watkins to wrest back the crown she lost to Watkins last year.
Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge underlined their “top-dog” status in the open weight men’s squad by winning the men’s pair from Alex Partridge and Alex Gregory.
“It’s nice to get the job done”, said Reed. “It’s been a special win for me today as it marks two Olympiads with wins at final Trials and I’ve got to give big credit to “Hodgey” [Triggs Hodge], he’s a massive strokeman”.
Alan Campbell reigned supreme for the eighth time in the open men’s single scull but there were surprise winners of the lightweight men’s and women’s single sculls in Adam Freeman-Pask and Kat Copeland – the latter having joined the senior squad after winning the world U23 title last year.
Earlier in the today’s racing, Helen Glover and Heather Stanning kept to the script by powering to victory in the women’s pair from team-mates Jess Eddie and Louisa Reeve.
“We’ve had some outstanding and very close racing today. That tells us that the depth in the squad is really, really strong”, said Tanner.
“We had a few of our top guns missing in the lightweight men’s squad but apart from that I think our rowers have shown that we can really step up for this Olympic season.
“Also, we’ve seen that the venue has delivered. We’ve had good weather and we’ve had a lot of British public here today and that support has been exceptional. I think we have all got the feeling and the message now that the Olympic Games are close and we will and can step up to them and having our Olympic trials here finishing in the sunshine has been just the starter we needed for the 2012 season”.
Tanner also commented on the outstanding support given to the squad by the National Lottery and Siemens, the GB Rowing Team’s High Performance Partner and said: “Many in the crowd will have bought their lottery tickets this week and we really appreciate the massive backing the public are giving us through the Lottery”.
Great Britain’s two adaptive men’s single scullers – aiming for a place at the first world cup of the season but also with an eye on this year’s Paralympic Games – went head-to-head in their own Trials at the squad’s training centre at Caversham today. Tom Aggar, the reigning Paralympic Champion beat Andy Houghton by six seconds.
“The Trials have gone well and the squad can now prepare for the Varese International Regatta”, said lead adaptive coach, Tom Dyson.