World-class squad prepare to prove Britain rules

by Mike Rosewell, Times Online on 15 Jul 2006 Great Britain Rowing yesterday announced the bulk of its team for the World Championships in Eton from August 20-27, the first time that Britain has hosted the championships since 1986.

The athletes are relishing the prospect of appearing at home, the mood being summed up by Steve Williams, an Olympic gold medal-winner in Athens and member of the present unbeaten world champion coxless four, who said: 'I feel like a kid before Christmas.' The crew, together with the women’s quad, also defending world champions and stroked by Katherine Grainger, the double Olympic silver medal-winner, are the favourites for a podium place.

David Tanner, the team manager, said that this season 'has been the best we have ever had' and that his target in the World Championships is three medals in the Olympic classes. With four of the crews selected yesterday already winners of their World Cup boat classes, one might have expected him to say more, but Tanner is wily and invariably correct, although he did add that 'I am overcautious'.

The men’s four and women’s quad were winners of all three World Cup regattas, and Alan Campbell’s finishes of first, second and fourth in the single scull put him ahead on World Cup points of Olav Tufte, the Olympic champion from Norway, and Mahe Drysdale, New Zealand’s world champion.

Campbell’s original aim this year was the top six but he now admits that 'my goals have changed and I want to be on the medal podium, and one particular place on that podium'.

The other World Cup winners were the women’s double scullers, Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington, who took gold at the first World Cup regatta in Munich, but their most impressive performance came in Lucerne, where they won silver and pushed the Evers-Swindell twins, the world and Olympic champions from New Zealand, to a 0.3sec margin of victory.

Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham, the new Britain men’s double this year, are in one of the toughest events in the programme. They have taken some scalps, not least at Henley, when they raced Luka Spik and Iztok Cop, Slovenia’s former Olympic champions and present world champions, to a standstill. They also beat the France world record- holders into third place when they won silver in Lucerne. Rowbotham said yesterday: 'We have finished fourth, third and second in the three World Cups. There is only one more place to go.'

Tom James and Colin Smith, a mixture of Cambridge and Oxford Blues, came late on to the scene this year in a coxless pair in Lucerne and gave the world champions, Nathan Tweddle and George Bridgewater, from New Zealand, a fright in finishing close to them in second place. James admits to being 'relative lightweights in a heavyweight event' and, after only five weeks together as a crew, he is looking forward to the next five weeks of preparation.

The men’s and women’s eights have had differing fortunes this season. The women, stroked by Elise Laverick, the Olympic bronze medal-winner, have been generally close to, or on, the pace, while the men, stroked by Kieran West, the Olympic gold medal-winner, have not yet fired on all cylinders. A home crowd might be the catalyst to change that trend. The selectors have named 12 contenders for the eight places in the crew.

Tanner is also pleased with the improving Britain lightweight men. 'They have made a good step on this season,' he said yesterday. The new men’s lightweight four, stroked by James Clarke, of Durham, have not won a medal this year but have been well among the pack, as have James Lindsay-Fynn and Mark Hunter, who took a bronze medal at the World Cup event in Poland.

JUST OARSOME

Great Britain’s recent Olympic rowing record


1984: Gold: Men’s coxed four
1988: Gold: Men’s coxless pair. Bronze: Men’s coxed pair
1992: Gold: Men’s coxless pair. Gold: Men’s coxed pair
1996: Gold: Men’s coxless pair. Bronze: Men’s coxless four
2000: Gold: Men’s eight, men’s coxless four. Silver: Women’s quad scull 2004: Gold: Men’s coxless four. Silver: Women’s quad scull, women’s coxless pair Bronze: Women’s double scull

To see the GBR Team: www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4-2269420,00.html