Great Britain team set for World Champs

Great Britain head to New Zealand as overall winners of the World Cup circuit and at the final Rowing World Cup in Lucerne the team finished with 11 medals out of the 14 Olympic events, four of them gold. Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger who picked up gold in both the women’s double sculls and women’s quadruple sculls at the final Rowing World Cup, have been selected to race just in the double in New Zealand. This brings Olympic silver medallist Frances Houghton back into the quad following her time out after the Beijing Olympics.

Despite post-Lucerne speculation about the future of men’s pair (Andrew Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed), the pair remain together. Hodge and Reed have been beaten into second by New Zealand for the last two years and there was talk that they may go back into the men’s four. The World Champion men’s four, however, will stay intact and defend their title at Lake Karapiro.

Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking remain in the lightweight women’s double and will be aiming to better their 2009 bronze medal.

The 1992 Olympic Champion, Greg Searle, remains in the men’s eight which will be stroked by Daniel Ritchie, a former swimmer who came to rowing through the GB talent identification programme. Ritchie is 15 years Searle’s junior. The eight will be coached by John West and former South African coach, Christian Felkel.

Adaptive single sculler Helene Raynsford has come back to training and won her spot in the arms and shoulders single.  Health issues forced Raynsford into retirement earlier this year, but she has made a remarkable comeback.

The team was selected by the head men’s and women’s coaches, Juergen Grobler and Paul Thompson with input from Performance Director David Tanner and they stated in the GB Rowing press release that this event is the starting point for the Olympic qualifying season.

"These next 11 months are a crucial part of the Olympic cycle," said Tanner. "We go to New Zealand with strength in depth and will want to assess progress to date."

2010 BRITISH TEAM

Women’s Pair (W2-)
Helen Glover
Heather Stanning

Women’s Eight (W8+)
Jo Cook
Louisa Reeve
Natasha Page
Victoria Thornley
Jessica Eddie
Lindsey Maguire
Olivia Whitlam
Alison Knowles
Caroline O'Connor (coxswain)

Women’s Double sculls (W2x)
Anna Watkins
Katherine Grainger

Women’s Quadruple sculls (W4x) (and reserve)
Debbie Flood
Frances Houghton
Beth Rodford
Katie Solesbury
Annabel Vernon

Men’s Pair (M2-)
Peter Reed
Andrew Triggs Hodge

Men’s Four (M4-)
Alex Partridge
Richard Egington
Alex Gregory
Matthew Langridge

Men’s Eight (M8+)
Tom Broadway
James Clarke
Cameron Nichol
James Foad
Mohamed Sbihi
Greg Searle
Tom Ransley
Daniel Ritchie
Phelan Hill (cox)

Men’s Single scull (M1x)
Alan Campbell

Men’s Double sculls (M2x)
Matthew Wells
Marcus Bateman

Men’s Quadruple sculls (M4x)
Charles Cousins
Sam Townsend
Bill Lucas
Stephen Rowbotham

Lightweight Women’s Double sculls (LW2x)
Hester Goodsell
Sophie Hosking

Lightweight Women’s Quadruple sculls (LW4x)
Jane Hall
Andrea Dennis
Stephanie Cullen
Laura Greenhalgh

Lightweight Men’s Pair (LM2-)
Adam Freeman-Pask
Chris Boddy

Lightweight Men’s Four (LM4-)
Richard Chambers
Paul Mattick
Rob Williams
Chris Bartley

Lightweight Men’s Single Sculls (LM1x)
Peter Chambers

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x)
Zac Purchase
Mark Hunter

ADAPTIVE BOATS

Arms, Shoulders Men’s Single Sculls (ASM1x)
Tom Aggar

Arms, Shoulders Women’s Single Sculls (ASW1x)
Helene Raynsford

Legs, Trunk, Arms Mixed Coxed Four (LTAMx4+)
Kelsie Gibson
James Roe
Ryan Chamberlain
Kate Jones
Rhiannon Jones (cox)