Great Britain’s squad unchanged for Poznan

David Tanner, Great Britain’s performance director said in the GB Rowing News press release that this season was all about trying new things. "We have also blooded some young and new athletes who need to learn the demands of toughness of Olympic-level racing. This has not been an easy season but I believe that it is laying a good basis for our Olympic campaign.”

After discussions with UK Sport, Great Britain’s high performance agency, Tanner said that rowing is targeting four medals at Poland in the Olympic boat classes. But, he said, they of course, want to do better than that.

Potential medal prospects include men’s single sculler Alan Campbell. Campbell raced at two Rowing World Cups winning a silver and gold. The lightweight women’s double has also been targeted for a medal. The duo of Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hoskings won both World Cups that they competed in and will be the crew to beat in this event.

Men’s head coach Juergen Grobler has made the men’s pair the flagship boat. The pair of Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed have two silvers and a gold from this season. The duo have been beaten twice by New Zealand and say that they will be working very hard between now and Poznan to be the top crew.

"We know that the New Zealanders have been quicker than us so far this season. That will give us the motivation during a ruthless series of training camps coming up now,” Reed told GB Rowing News.

There are still final decisions to be made in the men’s and women’s eights with a squad of 10 to be narrowed down to the final eight for each boat.

The British squad of 58 includes three boats in the adaptive rowing events. Arms and trunk single sculler Tom Aggar is the reigning Paralympic Champion and at the Rowing World Cup in Munich Aggar added to his unbeaten record.

Great Britain won the overall Rowing World Cup points trophy after beginning the season with runaway success at the first Rowing World Cup (Banyoles). They finished second behind Germany at both the Munich and Lucerne Rowing World Cups, but their overall points gave them one of the biggest winning margins ever seen by a country.

Great Britain’s squad

Men
Single: A Campbell
Double: M Wells & S Rowbotham
Quad: C Cousins, M Bateman, B Lucas, S Townsend
Pair: P Reed & A Triggs Hodge
Four: A Partridge, R Egington, A Gregory, M Langridge
Eight: T Broadway, T Burton, J Clarke, P Marsland, J Orme, T Ransley, N Reilly-O'Donnell, D Ritchie, T Solesbury, T Wilkinson, coxswain P Hill
Lightweight single: A Freeman-Pask
Lightweight double: R Williams & P Mattick
Lightweight four: C Bartley, S Feeney, C Boddy, B Hewitt

Women
Single: K Grainger
Double: A Vernon & A Bebington
Quad: R Bradbury, B Rodford, S Cowburn, K Greves
Pair: O Whitlam & L Reeve
Eight from: J Cook, J Eddie, A Freeman, A Knowles, L Maguire, N Page, T Stiller, M Wilson, two U-23 reserves tbc, coxswain C O'Connor
Lightweight double: H Goodsell & S Hosking
Lightweight quad: S Cullen, J Hall, L Greenhalgh, A Dennis

Adaptive
Arms and shoulders only men's single: T Aggar
Trunk & arms mixed double: J Roberts & S Scowen
Leg-trunk-arms mixed coxed four: V Hansford, J Roe, D Smith, N Riches, coxswain R Jones