Rachel Morris started the gold rush when she turned an appalling start, as she termed it, into a final 350m surge in the arms-shoulders single scull to add Paralympic rowing gold to the gold she won in cycling in 2008.

Tom Aggar produced a fiercely determined performance to add bronze in the equivalent men’s event, holding off the 2012 Paralympic Champion from China in a race won by the Ukraine.

c. Simon Way

Lauren Rowles and Laurence Whiteley lived up to the promise they showed in winning their heat in a World Best Time to win gold in the mixed double scull.

Pamela Relph became a back-to-back Paralympic Champion in the mixed coxed four when she and Grace Clough, Daniel Brown, James Fox and cox Oliver James brought home gold in the final race of a fabulous 2016 for the GB Rowing Team.

Grace Clough, Dan Brown, Pamela Relph, cox Oliver James and James Fox won LTA mixed coxed four gold at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: “Today has been exceptional for our programme. To be top of the medal table was our first objective and we are undisputed leaders of that.

“Last year at World Championships we showed the standard of our squad by getting three silvers and a gold and we have converted two of those silvers to golds here. That’s no discredit toTom Aggar who got a great bronze. I’m proud of the rowers.

“As ever I’m deeply grateful to the National Lottery without which none of this would be possible.”

Click on the expander boxes below for race reports, reaction and results in full.

The post Three golds and a bronze on epic day for GB Rowers appeared first on British Rowing.

Ollie Cook, Callum McBrierty and cox Henry Fieldman successfully defended GB’s title in the men coxed pair with a storming victory, while the lightweight women’s quadruple scull of Brianna Stubbs, Emily Craig, Imogen Walsh and Ellie Piggott powered away from Germany to upgrade on last year’s silver medal.

The women’s four of Fiona Gammond, Donna Etiebet, Holly Nixon and Holly Norton also went one better than the silver won by GB in 2015 as they recorded an emphatic clear-water victory, while Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour were edged into bronze-medal position during a thrilling lightweight men’s pair final.

Sir David Tanner, British Rowing’s Performance Director and Overall Team Leader in Rotterdam, said: “We have had a really good day for our senior boats, with three golds and a bronze medal improving on the good results from last year’s World Championships.

“Our rowers have sent out a strong message for next season and beyond – well done.”

Ellie Piggott, Imogen Walsh, Emily Craig and Brianna Stubbs © Peter Spurrier/Intersport Images

McBrierty said: “If we had to define our perfect race, we almost had it down to a tee today. We were relentless with every stroke.”

Walsh, who repeated her 2011 success in the lightweight quad, added: “I have so much trust and respect for these girls and I never doubted we could do it. This is a fitting end to what has been a really fun and exciting project.”

Norton said: “It’s great to be on the podium with these girls, representing this programme and the next generation of rowers coming through.”

Callum McBrierty, Henry Fieldman and Ollie Cook

Sam Scrimgeour and Joel Cassells

The four medals continued a successful week for Britain at the combined World Championships and added to the two gold, three silver and one bronze won by the U23s in their competition.

An action-packed regatta concludes on Sunday with the finals of the Junior World Championships – click here to see how three more GB crews made progress through their semi-finals on Saturday afternoon.

Click on the expander boxes below for full race reports, reaction and results from the Senior World Championships finals

The post Treble triumph as GB top Senior World Champs medal table appeared first on British Rowing.

The men found the form that had made them World Champions for the past three years as they produced a phenomenal performance to dominate their final from the first stroke to the last.

That came just minutes after the women’s eight had produced what is fast becoming a trademark charge through the field in the second half of the race to go from last to second, claiming silver in a thrilling photo-finish.

It was another moment of rowing history on the Lagoa, being the first Olympic medal won by a British women’s eight, and helped to ensure that GB finished top of the Rio 2016 rowing medal table with three golds and two silvers.

Andrew T Hodge and Pete Reed both became triple Olympic Champions with their success in the men’s eight, while Matt Langridge completed his set of Olympic medals after silver in 2008 and bronze in 2012.

“I’m proud to have been in such a crew,” said Hodge. “The eight is a wholly team event and we worked for each other.”

Reed added: “I’m just thinking about how grateful I am to our coach and to the crew. They are just the most amazing bunch of guys and that was a big, big race.”

Jurgen Grobler, the Chief Coach for Open-weight Men who has now led 12 GB crews to Olympic gold, said: “It’s just fantastic what the guys did. They matched the coxless four and it’s been a wonderful day. It’s wonderful for British Rowing, it’s wonderful for our sport.

“In the last four years we have developed winning athletes, medal athletes, podium athletes. We knew we had a good bunch of guys to win the eight as well and I feel so good for them, there is a good mix between older and younger ones.”

The men's eight from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

It may have been a first Olympic medal for a women’s eight but it was a third silver for Frances Houghton who, like Katherine Grainger, was appearing at a record fifth Olympic Games for a British female rower.

“This fifth Olympics has been really great,” she said. “We’ve really tried to make sure we’ve had a good time. Even before the race we sat around and we were laughing and joking together.

“Sport can be so much pressure but at the same time, sport is supposed to be fun and a great experience. It’s something you do that you enjoy and you pursue because you like to be challenged.”

Jess Eddie, fifth with the eight in both 2008 and 2012, dedicated the success to the British women rowers who had been part of the programme during the past two decades.

“We’ve worked so hard to get here and it’s not just us, we did that for every single woman who has rowed in the eight for the past 20 years – you know who you are, you helped us get over this line.”

Sir David Tanner, Team GB Leader for Rowing, said: “With three outstanding golds and two superb silvers, our 26 rowing medallists have done TeamGB proud at these Olympics. 26 rowers will be returning home having achieved their dreams here in Rio. To be top of the rowing medal table for the third successive Olympics is something to be truly proud of.

“Well done to our rowers and the outstanding Coaching and Team Support staff, not only out here in Rio but those at home who backed us all the way.”

Click on the expanded boxes below for full race reports, reaction and results.

The post Eights excel as GB tops Rio medal table appeared first on British Rowing.

Sir David Tanner, British Rowing’s Performance Director and Overall Team Leader in Rotterdam, said “This is a key year for our Under 23s as we look towards the Tokyo Olympic cycle. Our rowers have the chance to impress at the Championships and stake a claim to a step on the Olympic ladder for 2020.”

Of the 57 rowers selected, 26 have competed at the championships in the past and can boast 13 medals between them.

A further 12 rowers have previously represented Great Britain at the World Junior Championships, including two history-making gold-medallists – Jess Leyden and Gavin Horsburgh – of whom Horsburgh will be making his U23 debut when the regatta takes place from August 21-28.

Leyden – who became the first Brit to win an international women’s single scull title at the 2013 World Juniors – was fourth in the single at the World U23 Championships in 2014 and has no shortage of experience having raced in the senior women’s quadruple scull during the past two seasons, the boat missing out on Olympic qualification by two places.

She will team up in the women’s double with Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, who made an impressive senior debut in the single at this year’s European Championships and returns for a third successive World U23s.

Another rower with senior experience is Sam Mottram, who raced with the lightweight men’s quad at last year’s World Championships a month after winning silver in the same boat at the World U23s – one of six medals won by GB in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He will contest the lightweight single this time.

This year’s lightweight quad includes Horsburgh, part of the first-ever GB men’s quad to win a gold medal at a global championships during last year’s World Juniors in Rio. He is joined by newcomers Oliver Varley, Hugo Coussens and Matthew Curtis.

Jess Leyden

Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne

Sam Mottram

Ed Fisher, Benjamin Reeves, Alastair Douglass and Jonathan Jackson have been named in the lightweight men’s four for a second successive year and will be looking to get on the podium again and step up a notch having won bronze in 2015.

The open men’s four are no strangers to the World U23s either, having made nine previous appearances between them.  Lewis McCue – going to a fourth successive championships – and James Johnston both won silver in the boat last year and are joined this time by Tom George and James Rudkin, who finished fourth in the men’s pair in Plovdiv.

The women’s four contains two medallists from 2015 in Rowan McKellar, who won silver in the pair, and Hattie Taylor, who won bronze in the eight. They are joined by two former World Juniors, Lauren Kedar and Saskia Budgett.

Georgia Francis, who won silver with the eight in 2014 and raced in the double last year, will make her latest U23 appearance in the women’s quad alongside Lucy Burgess, Ruth Siddorn and Kyra Edwards, a silver-medallist in the quad at last year’s World Junior Championships.

Susannah Duncan was a team-mate of Edwards in Rio, winning her second World Junior medal in the process.  Both she and Mary Wilson will make their U23 debuts in the lightweight women’s quad, alongside Ellie Lewis – a bronze-medallist in the boat in 2013 – and Maddie Arlett.

In the women’s eight are Emily Ford and Holly Hill, who won bronze with the four last year, plus World Junior medallists Charlotte Hodgkins-Byrne – Mathilda’s younger sister – and Anna Thornton. Alice Bowyer, Chloe Brew, Madelaine Badcott and Heidi Long complete a crew coxed by Sasha Adwani.

The men’s eight also contains two World Junior medallists in Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Matthew Benstead, as well as Calum Irvine, Tim Livingstone, David Bewicke-Copley, Sholto Carnegie, Robert Hurn, Arthur Doyle and cox Ian Middleton.

Harry Leask and Andrew Joel continue in the men’s quad for a second successive year, joined this time by Harry Glenister and 2014 World Junior medallist Rowan Law.

Tom Barras, who has been part of the quad for the past couple of years, has been the top U23 sculler this season and goes in the men’s single.

Rory Gibbs and cox Harry Brightmore, who were in the eight in 2015, will contest the men’s coxed four alongside Christopher Heywood, Michael Glover and Michael Aldridge, while debutants Oliver Hines and Graham Ord form the men’s pair.

This year’s World U23s are taking place alongside both the Senior and Junior World Championships, with more than 100 GB rowers in total competing on the Willem-Alexander Baan rowing course during an action-packed week.

Click here to see the Senior squad and here to see the Junior team.

The post U23s challenged to show Tokyo 2020 potential at Worlds appeared first on British Rowing.

Four other medallists from the 2015 championships in Aiguebelette, France, will also compete in this year’s edition for non-Olympic boats, which is taking place alongside the World U23 and Junior Championships from 21-28 August.

That means more than 100 GB rowers will be competing on the Willem-Alexander Baan course in what is effectively the first major international event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympiad, coming just eight days after the Rio regatta concludes.

British Rowing Performance Director Sir David Tanner, who will be Overall Team Leader in Rotterdam, said: “These three, senior boats will want to lay down a marker for the Tokyo Olympic cycle and have a great opportunity to impress.

“We are still assessing the standard of two possible additional boats for the Worlds, a women’s four and lightweight men’s quad, and will decide on those later this week.”

Cassells and Scrimgeour, the latter the lightweight men’s spare for Team GB in Rio, will be looking to continue their excellent unbeaten partnership in the lightweight men’s pair.

The Coleraine/Kirriemuir combination were crowned as World Champions in their first regatta together last year and have continued that impressive form during 2016, winning the European Championships title and World Cup gold in Lucerne and Poznan.

“I am chuffed to be selected again with Sam to defend our title in the pair, we are very excited to get to Rotterdam and start racing,” said Cassells.

“We’ve strived to continue this season where we left off in Aiguebelette and winning that European title and being unbeaten since we first raced together is special. Of course that puts a target on our backs and adds to the expectation but we relish the challenge.

“Being part of a highly-competitive lightweight and women’s squad this year has pushed us both on both physically and mentally. It gives us great confidence when we’re punching up with the likes of our brilliant women’s pair that we’re in a good position to begin racing again.”

Ollie Cook, Callum McBrierty and cox Henry Fieldman won World Cup gold in Poznan

Imogen Walsh

The lightweight women's quad that won silver in 2015

Fieldman guided Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell and Mat Tarrant to the coxed pair World title in Aiguebelette last year. This time he will be joined in the boat by Ollie Cook and Callum McBrierty, the trio having won gold at the Poznan World Cup last month.

“After a successful debut in Poznan, we have been making substantial leaps forward in our rhythm and technical ability and cannot wait to start out assault on the World Championships in Rotterdam,” said Fieldman, who also won a silver medal at the Worlds in 2014.

“The GB coxed pair is now on five wins in a row and we are looking to continue that trend through the upcoming regatta.”

McBrierty, who also helped the men’s four to gold at the Lucerne World Cup as a replacement for the ill Constantine Louloudis, said: “I’m tremendously proud to be selected in the coxed pair for the World Championships.

“Myself, Ollie and Henry are looking forward to putting a marker down at Rotterdam. Having had a great camp in Varese with the Olympic squad, we can’t wait to show our strength at the end of August. There’s plenty more work to do before the event but I’m relishing the opportunity.”

All four members of the lightweight women’s quadruple scull won silver medals at last year’s World Championships. Brianna Stubbs, Emily Craig and Ellie Piggott return to the boat, while Imogen Walsh moves across from the lightweight single.

“I’m really excited to race in the lightweight quad again this year,” said Piggott, who will be competing at her third successive World Championships.

“As individuals we have a lot of experience in this event and from our first session together you could feel that the crew had a real buzz to it.

“We’ve shown good speed in training so far but, with four weeks still to go until Rotterdam, I’m looking forward to adding to that and seeing what we can deliver at the World Championships.”

The finals for the senior World Championships will take place on Saturday, 27 August, a day after the U23s and 24 hours before the Juniors.

The World Junior squad can be found here. The World U23 squad will be announced later this week.

The post Champs return to defend World titles in Rotterdam appeared first on British Rowing.

A cruel twist of fate means that twice World Championships medallist Graeme Thomas will miss competing in Rio.

Thomas, 27, from Preston, fell ill on the day after his arrival in Rio (Saturday 30 July) with a flu-like virus understood to have been incubating before his arrival in Brazil. He has been withdrawn on medical advice as his event, the men’s quadruple scull, starts as early as Saturday.

Clearly frustrated and disappointed Thomas, a key member of the nine-times international medal winning quad from the last three years said:

“This is a response every athlete hopes they never have to write. 7 years of dedication and it’s all over before getting to take a stroke in anger. I don’t agree with the decision but I don’t think anyone in my shoes would, as an athlete you always back yourself.

“I wish my friends and crew all the best in their Olympic regatta. I still believe they can do it without me and I hope all of this can lift any pressure or expectations and allow them to go out and enjoy it which is usually when people race best.

“Finally thank you to everyone who has supported me this far particularly my mum and dad who have unfortunately paid a lot of money to come to Rio. I’m sorry I couldn’t go the whole way but I will bounce back and over the next few months I will formulate my plan of action for Tokyo 2020”.

Thomas, who did not even get the chance to train on the Lagoa, will be replaced by Jack Beaumont who is swiftly earning a reputation as a “super-sub” having raced with the men’s quadruple scull to world cup silver in Lucerne in May.

Beaumont, 22, from Maidenhead, has flown out to join the team in Rio and will now follow in the footsteps of his father Peter who raced at the 1988 Olympic Games.  The former World U23 medallist arrived last night.

Sir David Tanner, team leader for rowing for Team GB, said:  “Whilst we welcome Jack into the team and we know that he is a quality substitute with a proven medal record, it is nonetheless a decision that we have taken with a heavy heart because Graeme has worked so hard to be here and has been such a strong part of the crew”.

The post Thomas misses out in cruel twist of fate appeared first on British Rowing.

The 36 rowers will form part of a 113-strong GB contingent competing on the Willem-Alexander Baan rowing course that week, with the World Senior and World U23 Championships taking place at the same time. The Finals for the World Juniors will be held on Sunday, 28 August, with the Senior and U23s completing their programmes over the previous two days.

Performance Director Sir David Tanner, who will be Overall Team Manager in Rotterdam, said: “Early signs are that we have a promising team this year and I am looking forward to seeing our Juniors in action in Rotterdam under their new Lead Coach, Robin Dowell, who coached the gold medal Junior men’s quad in Rio last year.”

Britain will be looking to build on last year’s successful World Juniors in Rio de Janeiro, which doubled as the Test Event for this summer’s Olympic Games and saw GB win three medals.

The standout success was a first gold of all-time for a GB men’s quadruple scull at a World Championship.  Glasgow Schools RC’s Josh Armstrong was part of that victorious crew and will be looking to defend the title after being named in the quad once again.

He is joined this time by James Mawby (Nottingham RC), Nick Plaut (Westminster School BC) and Tom Digby (Abingdon School BC), the latter having been selected for a third successive World Juniors.  Tom has won two World Junior silver medals, in the coxed four in 2014 and the coxless four last year.

Rory Harris (Pangbourne College BC) and George Lawton (Northwich RC) will contest the double scull, having rowed in the same boat at the Coupe de la Jeunesse last year.

All of the men’s four – Freddie Davidson (St Paul’s School BC), Oswald Stocker (Westminster School BC), Oscar Lindsay (Eton College BC) and James Plaut, Nick’s twin brother – are returning for a second successive World Juniors.

Cox Vlad Saigau (St Paul’s School) also competed in Rio and this year coxes a men’s eight featuring Eton College BC quartet Charlie Pearson, Patrick Adams, Benedict Aldous and Felix Drinkall plus four rowers stepping up from the 2015 Coupe squad – Oskar Arzt-Jones (Westminster School BC), Dom Jackson (Hampton School BC), Oliver Ayres (Molesey BC) and Seb Benzecry (St Paul’s School BC).

Two more Coupe team members from 2015, Bertie Woodward-Fisher (St Paul’s School BC) and cox George Cozens (Eton College BC), have been selected in the coxed four along with Seb Newman (Shiplake College) and Westminster School BC’s Alex Green and Reginald Mitchell.

Newcomers Adam Teece (Abingdon School BC) and Matthew Rowe (Royal Shrewsbury School BC) will compete in the men’s pair.

In the women’s team, Alex Rankin (Glasgow Schools RC) has been named in the four for a second successive year, having reached the final in Rio. She is joined this time by club colleague India Somerside and Gloucester RC duo Bryony Lawrence and Frances Russell.

Hope Cessford (Durham ARC) and Lauren Irwin (Chester-le-Street ARC) will make up the pair.

Reading RC’s Annabel Stevens and Sheyi Blackett are joined in the quad by Lola Anderson (Surbiton High School BC) and Lucy Glover (Warrington RC), who both represented GB at the Coupe in 2015.

Click on the expander box below to see the full crew list.

The post Juniors ready to take on World in Rotterdam appeared first on British Rowing.

Every crew from every nation had to dig deep in the strong cross-winds which meant winning came ugly rather than with finesse.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won the women’s pair to defend successfully their European title by some margin while the new-look 2016 men’s four of Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Constantine Louloudis controlled the conditions better than the opposition as well as having the power to take victory by just over a length.

Sbihi said:  “I didn’t need to call for a big push at the end. We had the length at the end.  They were tough conditions. Every time we got some boat-speed the wind hit us but you have to deal with the conditions on the day”.

Gregory said:  “It was very hard to do what we normally try to in training but it was a real test of our boatmanship. I am really pleased with the start we have made and I am excited to find out what we can do from here”.

Constantine Louloudis, George Nash, Moe Sbihi and Alex Gregory

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning crowned European Champions earlier this month.

Glover said:  “There were waves coming over my back at the start but racing here has up-skilled us.  We may have cross-wind conditions in Rio so it was good to race in them”.

Stanning added:  “We may be an experienced crew but we’re not experienced in these conditions.  So we had to concentrate”.

The GB’s women’s eight added a fabulous third gold when they smashed through the Dutch leaders with about 10m to go.

“The speed with which we were able to come through at the end was the special bit.  We have a lot of speed in this boat”, said Olympian Katie Greves who is clearly excited about this crew.

“Everyone did their job and stayed calm even though we were a length down’, said Zoe Lee, the stroke of boat. “It’s a privilege to row with these women”.

Joel Cassells and Sam Scrimgeour

Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes

Sir David Tanner,  GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said:  “It’s been a day of mixed fortunes for the team with some exceptional performances especially our four golds.

“Conditions have bordered on the extreme and have bene a tough challenge for all nations but we are an outdoor sport and have to accept that. It’s now onto Lucerne for the World Cup in late May where we will hope for calmer water”.

Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes added silver to the GB tally of four golds, two silvers and a bronze, in the men’s pair. They beat the Dutch who should have been their main opposition only to lose out on gold to Hungary who surged through at the end.  “I’m disappointed’, said Innes afterwards. “We came here to win”.

Sinclair added:  “Those were tough conditions.  I still think we have our best rowing to come”.

Chris Bartley, Mark Aldred, Jono Clegg and Peter Chambers were beaten to gold only by the reigning World Champions Switzerland in the light men’s four.  Their silver came in a time of 6:47.73 and was a big step on from their ninth place at last year’s World Championships.

Bartley said:  “After last year we are pretty pleased with that start”.  Aldred added:  “We have worked hard and made a lot of improvements over the winter”.

Chris Bartley, Jono Clegg, Peter Chambers and Mark Aldred

The men's eight

The men’s eight, a new line-up in 2016, took bronze in the last race of the day in a race won by Germany with Russia taking silver.

“That was an exciting race.  In terms of eights racing that’s about as exciting as it can get with several crews having had the lead at various times”, said World Champion Paul Bennett afterwards.

In the opening race of the day GB’s Sam Scrimgeour and Joel Cassells were emphatic winners of lightweight men’s pair gold, in one of the sport’s International Class events.  They got out to an early lead and went on to seal victory with style.  The victory meant a European title to add to Scrimgeour’s 2015 World gold and a successful title defence for Casseslls.

GB had 13 crews in today’s finals and took four golds, two silvers and a bronze. The next big event for the GB Rowing Team will be the world cup in Lucerne from May 27-29.

For reaction to this report and interview requests please contact the GB Rowing Team press office on site:  comms@gbrowingteam.org.uk or 07831 755351 or 07765 071683.

Click on the expander boxes below for more information.

The post Four gold European haul in bouncy Brandenburg appeared first on British Rowing.

Four of the six A Finals were won by U23 rowers – Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne and Tom Barras in the open-weight single sculls, and Mary Wilson and Jonathan Jackson in the equivalent lightweight races.

Fiona Gammond and Katherine Douglas won the women’s pair, while fellow Leander Club rowers Cameron Buchan and Matt Rossiter led the way in the men’s pair.

There were a host of encouraging performances from Junior rowers too, much to the delight of GB Rowing Team Performance Director Sir David Tanner.

Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne

Tom Barras

“We’ve had a first-rate set of trials – great conditions and a really good competitive atmosphere from our rowers,” he said.

“I am sure in the ones we have seen today that there is some good blood for the World U23s and Senior Championships this year, and also some athletes who have shown they can compete in the Tokyo cycle.”

Peter Sheppard, Chief Coach for U23s and Juniors, added: “There was very good racing and it was good to see people stepping up over the course of the two days.

Mary Wilson (top)

Jonathan Jackson out in front

“There were some good U23 performances and also from the rowers who have come from last year’s Junior team, they stepped up and made their mark.”

Selectors will now start putting together the crews for the World Senior and U23 Championships, which are taking place in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in August. The FISU World Universities Championships are being staged in Poznan, Poland the following month.

Click the expander boxes below for full race reports and reaction, plus all of Tuesday’s results.

Fiona Gammond and Katherine Douglas

Cameron Buchan and Matt Rossiter (foreground)

The post Young GB rowers make their mark at ‘first-rate’ World Trials appeared first on British Rowing.

Helen Glover and Heather Stanning were announced in the women’s pair in which they are the reigning Olympic, World and European Champions.

Glover said:  “It’s always fantastic to be selected to represent Great Britain, and never more so than in Olympic year. The European Championships are our first opportunity to test our early season speed against international competition.”

And one of the strongest open men’s sweep* rowing squads in the world has been deployed across the men’s eight and four, as well as a new-look men’s pair, for the event which takes place in Brandenburg, Germany from May 6-8.

Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said: “We are clearly ambitious to do well in Rio and will race and then review the Europeans combinations announced today. We will also enter six crews for the Varese World Cup regatta in ten days’ time.”

Double Olympic men’s four champions Pete Reed and Andrew T Hodge have been selected into the men’s eight in a line-up which includes Scott Durant and 2012 men’s eight medallist Matt Langridge alongside multiple World Champions Paul Bennett, Matt Gotrel, Tom Ransley, stroke Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill. Ransley, Satch and Hill are also 2012 medallists.

Alex Gregory, 2012 gold medallist in the four, returns to that boat and races with his Trials winning partner, Mohamed Sbihi, plus George Nash and stroke Constantine Louloudis. The quartet are all reigning World Champions in the men’s eight.

Gregory said:  “Everything we do aims towards the Olympics and now finally we are starting to form the crews that will make up the Olympic team. With the European Championships as the first test, I can’t wait to get the 2016 racing season underway. It’s a privilege to race for our country and the feeling of pride and excitement never diminishes.”

Having laid down a strong marker with a top-four finish at the recent GB Trials, Alan Sinclair and Stewart Innes are named as the men’s pair.

It is the first major step conquered on the way to fulfilling my dream of competing in my fifth Olympic Games – Frances Houghton

Relative rookie Angus Groom has forced his way into the open men’s quadruple scull* in the absence of the injured Charles Cousins, to join 2013 and 2014 World medallists Sam Townsend, Graeme Thomas and Peter Lambert.

Lambert said:  “I am extremely happy with my selection for the Europeans. This regatta is an exciting start to our Olympic season. The men’s quad at the Europeans is an extremely high competition. Out of the eight crews that qualified last year for the Olympics, seven of them are European countries. We are looking forward to it.”

2012 bronze medallist Alan Campbell, whose Trials’ win showed that he is back on form, races the single scull and Jonny Walton and John Collins, contest the double scull – they qualified that boat for Rio at last year’s World Championships.

Four-times Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger is named in the open women’s double scull with Trials winner Vicky Thornley in a reprise of their 2015 partnership which finished its debut season with a place in the World final.

Like Grainger, Frances Houghton, will race a fifth Olympic Games if selected later this summer for Rio.  She has switched from sculling to sweep rowing and has won a seat in the women’s eight that came so close to winning a medal at last year’s World Championships.

Grainger said:  “The idea of ever competing at the Olympic Games was once just a dream and so it was incredible when I made the team in 2000. Now 16 years on and looking to my fifth Games I still have the same excitement I did back then, it’s the most amazing event to be part of and that doesn’t change whether it’s the first time or the fifth.”

Houghton said:  “I feel almost overwhelmed to be selected for the European Championships in the women’s eight. It is the first major step conquered on the way to fulfilling my dream of competing in my fifth Olympic Games.

“It has at times seemed like an insurmountable mountain to climb and now it is just sinking in that all the hard work and deep belief in the darkest of times of illness and injury has paid off.”

Olympians Jess Eddie, Katie Greves and Melanie Wilson as well as 2013 World pair champion Polly Swann, back after a year out with injury, will be joined in the line-up by Zoe Lee, Karen Bennett, Olivia Carnegie-Brown and cox Zoe de Toledo.

It’s a privilege to race for our country and the feeling of pride and excitement never diminishes – Alex Gregory

World silver medallists Kat Copeland and Charlotte Taylor will once more race the lightweight women’s double scull having taken the top two spots at the Trials from a strongly contested lightweight sculling group. Imogen Walsh, therefore, races the single in which she won World silver in 2015.

Richard Chambers is on his way back after a recent hand injury and will race the lightweight men’s double, if fully fit, with Will Fletcher. Just like Olympic Champion Copeland and Taylor, they won World silver last year in their debut season together.

Further post-Trials testing was needed to establish the crews for the lightweight men’s sweep boats.  2012 silver medallists Peter Chambers and Chris Bartley have made the cut and will be joined by Mark Aldred and Jono Clegg, both now experienced internationals.  Sam Scrimgeour and Joel Cassells are GB’s choice in the pair. They won World gold last year.

Jamie Kirkwood, a World finalist last year, takes up the GB slot in the lightweight men’s single once more.

British Rowing will also race six crews at the Varese World Cup from April 15-17, including the women’s quadruple scull, announced in the European squad today as Holly Nixon, Jess Leyden, Tina Stiller and Rosamund Bradbury as the campaign begins to qualify this boat for Rio.

Click the expander ‘Crew List’ box below to see the squad in full.

*Sweep = one rower, one oar / Scull = one rower, two sculls

RACING TIMETABLE – 2016 European Championships, Brandenburg, Germany

• Friday 6 May – all heats a.m.; some repechages p.m.
• Saturday 7 May – All further repechages and semi-finals.
• Sunday 8 May – All finals (09.33 – 13.33 UK Time).

GB ROWING TEAM MEDALISTS – 2015 European Championships, Poznan, Poland

Gold:

• Women’s pair – Helen Glover, Heather Stanning.
• Men’s pair – James Foad, Matt Langridge.
• Men’s four – Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell, Alan Sinclair, Tom Ransley, Scott Durant.
• Lightweight women’s single scull – Imogen Walsh.
• Lightweight women’s double scull – Charlotte Taylor, Kat Copeland.
• Lightweight men’s pair – Joel Cassells, Peter Chambers.

Silver:

• Men’s eight – Matt Gotrel, Stewart Innes, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Moe Sbihi, Alex Gregory, George Nash, Will Satch, Phelan Hill (cox).
• Lightweight men’s double scull – Richard Chambers, Will Fletcher.

Bronze:

• Women’s double scull – Vicky Thornley, Katherine Grainger.
• Men’s quadruple scull – Jack Beaumont, Sam Townsend, Graeme Thomas, Peter Lambert.

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