Rowing New Zealand selects team

Rowing New Zealand selectors have named the biggest elite and under-23 squad in several years. The elite squad includes the first women’s eight since 1999 and all of the seven World Champions from 2005. New Zealand sports Team of the Year winners, Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater will race again in the men’s pair. Nicky Coles and Juliette Haigh will defend the women’s pair while Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell are back in the double to go after their fourth consecutive World Championship title. Mahe Drysdale will return to defend the men’s single.

A large under-23 squad was also announced. This includes Storm Uru who finished third in the lightweight single last year at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships. Two-time junior silver medallist, Nathan Cohen has moved to under-23 ranks and will race the open single. The under-23 women’s quad finished with bronze last year and all of the crew has moved up to be part of the elite women’s eight. A completely new line-up of Rosslyn Knox, Hannah Burns, Tamsin Gilbert and Trudy Stuart will race in the under-23 quad.

Competing at both the World Rowing Under 23 Championships and the World Rowing Championships, a men’s coxed four has also been selected. The young crew raced a time at last week’s trials that, in the selectors’ eyes, was good enough for them to be at the elite level, but their age makes them eligible to also go to the World Rowing Under 23 Championships.

The elite men’s four from last year includes two new members. Carl Meyer and Eric Murray have been in the four since the Athens Olympics and they will be joined by new squad member Selwyn Cleland and last year’s under-23 member Hamish Bond.
 
The elite squad will leave for Europe in June in time for the second Rowing World Cup in Poznan, Poland. They will also compete at the third Rowing World Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland and then move on to the World Rowing Championships at the end of August in Eton, Great Britain.

ELITE TEAM

Women’s Double Scull
Caroline Evers-Swindell
Georgina Evers-Swindell
Dick Tonks (coach)

Women’s Coxless Pair
Juliette Haigh
Nicky Coles
Dick Tonks (coach)

Women’s Eight
Erin Tolhurst
Clementine Marshall
Paula Twining
Emma Twigg
Rebecca Scown
Nikki-Lee Crawford
Bess Halley
Darnelle Timbs
Candice Bardsley (cox)
Dick Tonks (coach)

Men’s Coxless Pair
George Bridgewater
Nathan Twaddle
John Robinson (coach)

Men’s Single Scull
Mahe Drysdale
Dick Tonks (coach)

Men’s Coxless Four
Carl Meyer
Hamish Bond
Eric Murray
Selwyn Cleland
Chris Nilsson (coach)

Elite/Under 23 Men’s Coxed Four
Dane Boswell
Paul Gerritsen
James Dallinger
Steven Cottle
Daniel Quigley (cox)
Mark Stallard (coach)

UNDER-23 TEAM

Women’s Double Scull
Emma Feathery
Jaime Nielsen
Marion Horwell (coach)

Women’s Quad Scull
Rosslyn Knox
Hannah Burns
Tamsin Gilbert
Trudy Stuart
Marion Horwell (coach)

Men’s Coxless Four
Simon Watson
Graeme Hill
Carl Finlay
Cameron Corkill
Mark Stallard (coach)

Men’s Single Scull
Nathan Cohen
Wayne Maher (coach)

Men’s Lightweight Single Scull
Storm Uru
Calvin Ferguson (coach)

Men’s Lightweight Double Scull
Peter Taylor
Graeme Oberlin-Brown
Calvin Ferguson (coach)

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