Somerset Rowers Selected for GB World Cup Squad
4th April 2012
Somerset's Helen Glover has been selected to race for the GB Rowing Team at the opening world cup of the season in Belgrade from May 4-6, putting her in a strong position in the national squad early in the Olympic season.
Glover, a former Millfield pupil, will race in the women's pair with Heather Stanning with whom she has won back to back World silver medals.
Winscombe's Stephen Rowbotham was named at the team's squad announcement on Wednesday as one of five rowers for places in the men's quadruple scull along with last year's men's double scull pairing of Matt Wells and Marcus Bateman as well as Charles Cousins and Tom Solesbury.
Paul Mattick from Frome will race in a lightweight men's pair with Adam-Freeman Pask while Cameron Nichol from Glastonbury has been selected to form a second open-weight men's pair with his World silver-medal-winning crew-mate from the men's eight last season Dan Ritchie.
“World Cups are important competitions in their own right but this one will be more significant than usual as it gives us the first glimpse of the potential 2012 racing form of our crews,” said GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner.
“We are always ambitious to do well and will want to see a number of crews on the Belgrade podium. We will take into account performances in Belgrade as we shape the Team for the remainder of the season.”
The final build-up to London 2012 includes three international world cup regattas starting in Belgrade on the May Bank Holiday weekend before moving on to Lucerne from May 25-27 and then Munich from June 15-17.
The GB rowers, who are sponsored by Siemens and Lottery funded, must wait until June 6 though before the final selection for seats at the Olympics are announced, giving them two race opportunities to cement their places in a crew for London 2012.
And the June 6 announcement means the final world cup in Germany will be a tense and exciting precursor to the Games as the crews go head to head with their international rivals in their confirmed Olympic formations just six weeks before the action moves to Eton Dorney.
Every member of the GB team, regardless of past successes, has to earn their selection for the squad each year and has gone through a long winter of trials and testing. This culminated in the Senior Trials at the Olympic rowing venue in mid March and then a final period of behind-closed-doors ‘seat racing’ or general testing to determine who races in which boat for medals in 2012.