“I think we should be celebrating this medal,” said Richard Chambers. “It’s another medal for Team GB but I think we should also congratulate the winners. They are an outstanding crew.”

Peter Chambers, the younger of the two brothers from Coleraine, said: “We have to thank the whole of Northern Ireland for their support. Winning an Olympic silver medal is great.”

Rob Williams added: “You can’t be upset when you win a silver medal with 30,000 people cheering you on, it was a fabulous experience.

“We laid it all down. I couldn’t give more and nor could the other three.”

Strokeman Chris Bartley was helped onto the podium after showing signs of physical distress from the effort expended in a scintillating contest.

“The pain was quite extreme and I was physically sick a couple of times,” he said. “I’m still not feeling tip top but I’ll be OK.”

GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner said: “This was an exceptional performance. It was GB’s second-ever lightweight Olympic medal and they can be proud of how they performed today.”

Britain’s other finalists – the mens’ double and women’s eight – were both fifth.

In the earlier semi-finals both lightweight doubles won in style to book their places in Saturday’s finals. Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland reeled back the fast-starting Greek World Champions to take their victory.

Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase, defending Beijing champions, were locked in a battle with the French before succeeding.

They will be joined on Saturday by the men’s four of Andrew Triggs Hodge, Tom James, Peter Reed and Alex Gregory who beat their strongest rivals, Australia, to win.

“That was a nice semi-final but it’s the final on Saturday that counts”, said Triggs Hodge afterwards.

Britain has four boats in tomorrow’s finals: the men’s pair of George Nash and Will Satch, the men’s quadruple scull of Tom Solesbury, Charles Cousins, Matt Wells and Stephen Rowbotham, the women’s double scull, featuring double World Champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins; and Alan Campbell in the men’s single scull.

The finals start at 11.30am and run to 12.30pm.

The post London 2012 Day 6: Scintillating race gives lightweight four rowing silver appeared first on British Rowing.

Theirs was one of four heat victories from eight starts for the Team GB rowers today – enough to prompt Team GB rowing leader David Tanner to describe it as ” an exciting start” but cautioning that it would get “tougher from here”.

Glover was also keeping her feet on the ground whilst praising the crowd of 30,000. “The atmosphere is fantastic, the noise was amazing. For us, though, it was a standard row without the fireworks you might expect in a final.”

Stanning concurred: “We felt we had a relaxed row and now it’s all about the final. That’s the race we came here for.”

The lightweight men’s four of Peter and Richard Chambers plus Rob Williams and Chris Bartley were strong performers in their heat to win in 5:49.29 from Australia’s reigning world champions.

Britain’s other two victories came from the newcomer men’s pair of Will Satch and George Nash, who produced a poised first race at such a major event, and Alan Campbell, who looked in fine form in the men’s single scull.

Campbell moves to a quarter-final whilst the lightweight four and men’s pair move to semi-finals – all on Tuesday.

Sam Townsend and Bill Lucas were delighted with their performance in taking second place behind New Zealand who set an Olympic best time in the men’s double scull.

Cox Phelan Hill says “there is definitely more to come” from the British men’s eight who closed back up on eventual winners Germany in the second half of their heat today before taking second place and moving into the repechage on Monday.

The GB men’s quad are through to a semi-final with a comfortable second place today and Debbie Flood was clear that there were still options for the women’s quad who were fourth in their heat.

“We know we have the speed,” she said. “We just need to do a few things better to pick it up.” They also race a repechage on Monday.

WHAT’S AHEAD FOR THE ROWERS?

A further three boats will race opening heats on the second day – the women’s eight, lightweight men’s and women’s double scull.

In the lightweight men’s double scull Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter begin the defence of their Beijing crown, having had a roller-coaster season so far.

“We’ve had a good few weeks at training camp and we feel we are in a good place”, said Hunter recently.

Sophie Hosking and Kat Copeland contest the lightweight women’s double scull. Neither has raced at a Games before but Hosking has experience in the same event for the past three years at World Championship level, including two bronze medals in 2009 and 2011. Copeland was world U23 lightweight single scull champion last year and won the GB Senior Team Trials in that event.

The women’s eight finished the world cup season on a high after winning bronze in Munich. Cox Caroline O’Connor, Natasha Page, Louisa Reeve, Jess Eddie, Katie Greves, Annie Vernon and Olivia Whitlam are all Beijing Olympians – albeit not all in the women’s eight – whilst Lindsey Maguire and Vicky Thornley are World senior medallists.

Meanwhile the women’s double scull, featuring world champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, and the men’s four – with world champion Alex Gregory and three Beijing gold medallists Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Tom James on board – will race for the first time on Monday.

The post London 2012 Day 1: Glover and Stanning set Olympic best time at Eton-Dorney appeared first on British Rowing.

“Our recent training camps have gone well. We managed to escape the not-so-nice bits of the British summer and that was a big plus with great water conditions, particularly at our tuning camps in Southern Europe.

“I am sure that this is the best team that we have brought to a Games and I am confident that we will deliver on the water.”

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning will be first to the start line for Team GB in the women’s pair in the session starting at 09.30 on Saturday. Glover, a former PE teacher from Cornwall, and Stanning, an Army Captain from Lossiemouth, have been world silver medallists in each of the past two years.

Twice Olympic silver medallists Frances Houghton, racing at her fourth Games, and Debbie Flood, contesting her third Games, feature in the women’s quad in the same session alongside relative newcomer Melanie Wilson and 2010 World Champion, Beth Rodford.

The British team will contest a further six heats in that opening session.

1992 Olympic gold medallist Greg Searle has already confessed that he will have a lump in his throat when he races the opening heat of the men’s eight in a multi-talented crew including cox Phelan Hill, Constantine Louloudis at stroke, Olympic silver medallists Matthew Langridge, Ric Egington and Alex Partridge as well as world silver medallists James Foad, Tom Ransley and Mohamed Sbihi.

“It’s a privilege to row with such a talented crew”, said Searle. “It will feel different to 20 years ago but it will also be the same. I wanted to win then and we are ambitious to do the same here”.

Sbihi added: “I feel like we have definitely improved since the last world cup and I feel we are in a good place going into the Games. But it’s a very strong field, to be honest, anyone can make a final and anyone can make a medal.

“So I think it’s all about us effectively. I’m not really fussed about what the Germans or the Americans of the Canadians or others have done. It’s about what we have done and I trust in what we have done.”

Britain’s lightweight men’s four features the Chambers brothers, Peter and Richard, from Coleraine in Northern Ireland. They are the first set of brothers to race in the same crew since the Searles’ win in Barcelona with cox Garry Herbert.

The brothers are joined in the lightweight men’s four at Eton-Dorney by Rob Williams, who completed a PhD in crystallography just a month ago, and Welshman Chris Bartley, a talented photographer and rowing coach. This crew won the season’s final world cup but know they will face stiff opposition, particularly from China, in this fiercely competitive event.

Richard, the elder of the two brothers, said: “We’ve had a good couple of camps and we’ve worked hard. We know that ours is a very competitive event and that even at semi-final stage we’ll see some real knuckledusters of races.”

All three men’s sculling boats will be in action on the opening day. Alan Campbell makes a trio of Coleraine connections when he races the men’s single scull. Campbell has been on the world cup and World Championships podium several times since making the final in Beijing.

Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend, both graduates of a GB Rowing Team “Start” talent identification and development system, are the new-look British double scull this season. The Devon-Reading combination are looking to improve on their world cup performances here.

“We have had two really good training camps in the past six weeks,” said Lucas. “The work camp in the mountains went really well and then we did some speed work in Portugal. We’ve made some technical progress.”

Townsend will marry team-mate Natasha Page, who races in the women’s eight at the Games, later next month.

Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells, Beijing double scull bronze medallists, race in 2012 in the men’s quad. They are joined by Olympic debutant Charles Cousins and Tom Solesbury who rowed in a pair in Beijing.

The final crew in action on opening day will be the men’s pair of Will Satch and George Nash. The talented duo, both former youth medallists, made an impact in their debut senior season this year and will look to upset the pre-existing form book here.

A further three boats will race opening heats on the second day – the women’s eight, lightweight women’s and men’s double scull. The latter will be raced by defending Beijing winners Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter.

Meantime, the women’s double scull, featuring world champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins, and the men’s four with world champion Alex Gregory and three Beijing gold medallists Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Tom James on board will race for the first time on Monday.

Watkins said today that the GB team were looking forward to racing, were enjoying the Olympic set-up and felt quite relaxed: “We have a very good set up within our own team and it’s a very familiar environment, we are keeping ourselves to ourselves.”

Grainger added: “For us it’s just a case of fulfilling our potential, which is what you want to do in an Olympic race, to be the fastest crew in the world. It’s more about going as fast as we possibly can – the actual result we don’t focus on because that will take care of itself. It’s more about how we race.”

Tom James, from the men’s four, said: “We’ve made some good changes to how we row and I think we learnt from our mistakes [at the last world cup] in Munich.”

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Crews listed Bow to Stroke followed by
(Club, Home Town, Date of Birth)

OPEN WOMEN

Pair
Helen Glover (Minerva Bath, Penzance, 17/06/86)
Heather Stanning (Army RC, Lossiemouth, 26/01/85)
Coach: Robin Williams

Eight
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC, Warrington, 16/09/85)
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club, London, 17/05/84)
Jessica Eddie (Univ of London BC, Durham, 07/10/84)
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford RC, Edinburgh, 15/01/82)
Natasha Page (Gloucester RC, Hartpury, 30/04/85)
Annabel Vernon (Leander Club, Wadebridge, 01/09/82)
Katie Greves (Leander Club, Oxford, 02/09/82)
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club, Wrexham, 30/11/87)
Caroline O’Connor (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC, Ealing, London, 25/04/83)
Coach: Nick Strange

Double Scull
Anna Watkins (Leander Club, Leek, Staffs, 13/02/83)
Katherine Grainger (St Andrew BC, Aberdeen, 12/11/75)
Coach: Paul Thompson

Quadruple Scull
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC, London, 25/06/84)
Debbie Flood (Leander Club, Guiseley, W. Yorks, 27/02/80)
Frances Houghton (Leander Club, Oxford, 19/09/80)
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC, Gloucester, 28/12/82)
Coach: Ade Roberts

Spares
Jo Cook (Leander Club, Sunbury-on-Thames, 22/03/84)
Emily Taylor (Leander Club, Lincoln, 28/06/87)

OPEN MEN

Pair
George Nash (Molesey BC, Guildford, 02/10/89)
Will Satch (Leander Club, Henley-on-Thames, 09/06/89)
Coaches: Christian Felkel & John West

Four
Alex Gregory (Leander Club, Wormington, 11/03/84)
Pete Reed (Leander Club, Nailsworth, Glos, 27/07/81)
Tom James (Molesey BC, Wrexham, 11/03/84)
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC, Hebden, N. Yorks, 03/03/79)
Coach: Jürgen Grobler

Eight
Alex Partridge (Leander Club, Alton, Hants, 25/01/81)
James Foad (Molesey BC, Southampton, 20/03/87)
Tom Ransley (York City RC, Cambridge, 06/09/85)
Richard Egington (Leander Club, Knutsford, 26/02/79)
Mohamed Sbihi (Molesey BC, Surbiton, 27/03/88)
Greg Searle (Molesey BC, Marlow, 20/03/72)
Matt Langridge (Leander Club, Northwich, 20/05/83)
Constantine Louloudis (Leander Club, London, 15/09/91)
Phelan Hill (cox) (Leander Club, Bedford, 21/07/79)
Coaches: Christian Felkel & John West

Single Scull
Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School, Coleraine, 09/05/83)
Coach: Bill Barry

Double Scull
Bill Lucas (London RC, Kingswear, Devon, 13/09/87)
Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC, Reading, 26/11/85)
Coach: Mark Earnshaw

Quadruple Scull
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club, Winscombe, Somerset, 11/11/81)
Charles Cousins (Reading Univ BC, Willingham, Cambs, 13/12/88)
Tom Solesbury (Leander Club, Petts Wood, Kent, 23/09/90)
Matthew Wells (Leander Club, Hexham, Northumberland, 19/04/79)
Coach: Mark Banks

Spares
Marcus Bateman (Leander Club, Torquay, 16/09/82)
Cameron Nichol (Molesey BC, London, 26/06/87)

LIGHTWEIGHT WOMEN

Double Scull
Sophie Hosking (London RC, Wimbledon, 25/01/86)
Katherine Copeland (Tees RC. Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, 01/12/90)
Coach: Paul Reedy

LIGHTWEIGHT MEN

Four
Peter Chambers (Oxford Brookes Univ BC, Coleraine, 14/03/90)
Rob Williams (London RC, Maidenhead, 21/01/85)
Richard Chambers (Leander Club, Coleraine, 10/06/85)
Chris Bartley (Leander Club, Chester, 02/02/84)
Coach: Rob Morgan

Double Scull

Zac Purchase (Marlow RC, Tewkesbury, 02/05/86)
Mark Hunter (Leander Club, Romford, Essex, 01/07/78)
Coach: Darren Whiter

Spare
Adam Freeman-Pask (Imperial College BC, Windsor, 19/6/85)

TEAM SUPPORT
David Tanner: Team Leader
Maurice Hayes: Equipment Manager
Ann Redgrave: Doctor
John Tetley: Boatman
Mark Edgar: Physio / Head of Rowing Medical Service
Caroline Searle: Press Officer
Sally Brown: Physio
Maggie Netto: Asst. Team Leader *
Liz Arnold: Physio
Jo Bates: Administrator *
Karen Burn: Physio *
Mark Homer: Sports Scientist
Craig Williams: Sports Scientist
Chris Shambrook: Psychologist *
Alistair Patterson: Performance Analyst *

* Non-Accredited Team Support

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CONTACT DETAILS

For interview requests with Team GB rowers and performance personnel contact Press Officer Caroline Searle on 07714 078658 or 07831 755351 or email caroline@matchtight.co.uk.

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EDITORS’ NOTES

The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the National Olympic Committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Its mission is to transform British lives through the power of the Olympic values and the success of Team GB. The BOA’s role is to prepare the ‘Best of British’ athletes for, and lead them at, the summer, winter and youth Olympic Games.

The BOA delivers extensive support services to Britain’s Olympic athletes and their National Governing Bodies to enhance Olympic success and is responsible for championing the Olympic values and brand in the UK. The BOA receives no funding from the lottery or government, has no political interests and is completely dependent upon fundraising income to achieve its mission. The BOA is the strong, independent voice for British Olympic Sport.

Team GB website: www.teamgb.com
Team GB Twitter: www.twitter.com/TeamGB
Team GB Facebook: www.facebook.com/TeamGB

British Rowing is the governing body for all rowing within the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland.

The GB Rowing Team trains, prepares and selects crews to represent Great Britain in international competitions at junior, U23 and senior level, from Under 16s to World Cups, World Championships the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games.
The GB Rowing Team has a proud history as one of GB’s most successful Olympic sports producing World and Olympic Champions from across the UK.

GB Rowing Team website: /gb-rowing-team
GB Rowing Team Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/gbrowingteam
GB Rowing Team Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gbrowingteam

The post London 2012 Olympic preview: Tanner says GB rowers are in great shape appeared first on British Rowing.