Newsletter: March 2014

Contents Welcome

Welcome What an honour it is to be a GB Rowing Team Message from Sir David Tanner supporter and we are all extremely grateful to GB Rowing Team Supporters (GBRTS) our amazingly talented rowers for whom we love Essential Information to ROAR! We are appreciative of the hours that • How To Join • Discussion Forum they spend training to experience hopeful success • Get your Kit on both nationally and internationally. We send our • Review of the 2013 Season : thanks to them for ‘entertaining’ us through the • World Rowing Senior Championships Junior squads, who so wonderfully combine school • World Rowing U23 Championships • World Rowing Junior Championships work and rowing training, through to the Under • Other Events Round-Up 23s, often amalgamating this brilliant sport with Looking Foward - The 2014 Season: studying at uni, or earning a living! Hours and • 2014 Regatta Calendar hours of training can at times lead on to Senior • Guides for Supporters success, where the world turns to watch and admire Useful Website Links through anxious eyes. Thank you to our amazing GBRTS Committee GB Rowing Team, GB Coaches and GBRT Staff, for making many dreams a reality, and no matter what the weather, organising and training for our GB WORLD SUCCESS.

GO GB!

sarah tarrant Co-Ordinator, GBRTS The third World Cup in Lucerne proved to be a message from the first real tough test of the post-Olympic year, Sir David Tanner there was a strong showing with most of the top international boats present to compete. Overall GB won the series and it was a great introduction for After the many successes of the London 2012 Games the new combinations. the 2013 season provided both challenges and achievements for the GB Rowing Team moving into the Rio 2016 cycle.

2013 was a year of development, a year of welcoming new faces to the senior squad and saying goodbye to familiar ones. Overall 2013 provided the team with a great deal to be pleased with. There was some solid racing through Junior, U23 and Senior levels.

The World Rowing Championships was a far-flung affair, taking place in Chungju, South Korea. I think we can all agree that no expense was spared by the organising committee when preparing for this event. The facilities were world class, the course infrastructure was ‘state of the art’ and the atmosphere at the course was exceptional. Emphatic wins were had by the men’s eight, who won GB’s The GB Rowing Team attended their first ever World first ever Championship gold in this event, and the Cup competition in the Southern Hemisphere with women’s pair of Polly Swann and Helen Glover who, encouraging results, including wins for the men’s defending the success GB has had in this boat class, eight, lightweight men’s double and women’s won gold in a convincing fashion, as did the LTA pair. These ‘new look’ boats combined established Para four, defending their Paralympic title in style. olympians with new blood. The remaining two World The men’s quad took an impressive bronze, another Cups took place in Europe; the second on home soil historic moment for GB. Four good bronze medals back in Eton Dorney, the venue of our 2012 success. from our Lightweights competed the medal run. This was a great legacy from the 2012 Games and The U23 and Junior rowers also performed well. recreated some of the excitement and atmosphere Notably a gold medal in the women’s single at the from the Olympic competition. World Rowing Junior Championships went to Jess Leyden, surely one to watch moving forward. There were also five medals won by the U23s in Linz: a gold, three silvers and a bronze - an impressive performance.

The GB Team laid a good base from which to step on into the 2014 season, of which there is much to look forward to, and with hard work more success to come on the road to Rio 2016. sir david tanner CBE performance director

Back to Contents Page GB Rowing Team Supporters (GBRTS): Essential Information

How To Join: Membership is open to all, and costs £10 for a year’s subscription or £50 for a life membership. The £10 subscription covers up to two family members and the life subscription covers up to four individuals. Application forms for membership or for renewing existing subscriptions can be downloaded from the British Rowing website at : www.britishrowing.org/gb-rowing-team/supporters/membership

Discussion Forum Get Your Kit On: Are You Being Seen? The GBRTS online discussion forum provides a medium for communication and an information It’s the time of year to dust off those old polo shirts resource for Family and Friends supporting and fleeces ready to cheer on your favourite GB crews rowers in GB Rowing Teams. This is the place as the competitive season gets underway. for supporters to share their ideas, suggestions, A range of distinctive clothing for supporters has experiences and knowledge with other been developed and is on sale from ‘Rock the Boat’. supporters on anything from venue locations, More details will be available later in the year, but in acommodation details and travel plans. the meantime further information can be obtained The group provides a central point for sharing from ‘Rock the Boat’ (see link on page 7). photos, spectator guides for each of the racing venues and details of GBRTS clothing. By joining

the group you will ensure you have the most up to date information, can keep in contact with other Friends and Family and make the most of the opportunities to support the GB Rowing Team from Junior through to Senior level. To subscribe to the group, please email [email protected] If you have any difficulties with the joining process please email Robin Walker at [email protected]. This group is only open to members of the Supporters Club (see above for how to join). Your contact details will be protected and moderators will ensure appropriate use is maintained.

Back to Contents Page review of 2013 In the Olympic events the 14 gold medals were shared among 12 countries, with GB and Norway World Rowing Championships being the only nations to win two of them. Our golds came from the very first and last finals on the The first FISA event ever to be held in South Korea programme. was always bound to be intriguing, and certainly different. It clearly wasn’t an easy venue to get to, Helen Glover and Polly Swann won the women’s not only due to the length of the flight, but because pairs with a commanding performance, as they the location of the regatta itself (Chungju) was quite had done throughout the year; this combination remote. But a couple of dozen intrepid GB Rowing has proved to be just as dominant as our Olympic Team supporters shrugged aside these difficulties boat which Heather Stanning stroked rather than and made the trip regardless. Polly. In the closing race of the regatta our men’s eight put together their best row of the season with an outstanding middle thousand metres that took them out of reach of the fast-finishing German Olympic champions. Meanwhile in the Para Rowing events the GB mixed four won their LTA event convincingly to reinforce our strong record in this event following last year’s Paralympic victory. GB crews also won five bronze medals. Four came We were well rewarded because this was an from lightweight events – men’s four, double outstanding regatta. Our Korean hosts had scull and pair and the women’s single scull – the constructed a superb rowing course from scratch other from an impressive men’s quad who came and they ran an exemplary event. The facilities very close to toppling Croatia and Germany, who were, at least, the equal of any other venue and the were respectively the reigning World and Olympic services provided were excellent. They may not have champions. There were also several fourth places had much experience of major rowing events but and other finalists from the GB squad. FISA has they had certainly done their homework and had published a DVD showing all the Chungju finals spared no expense – their budget was rumoured to in full, available from New Wave (see web links on have been of the order of $20 million, probably ten page 7). times what such events normally cost to run. In the World Cup regattas earlier in the year GB The GBRT Supporters’ hotel – an hour’s bus again finished at the top of the table with a total ride away – was rather more idiosyncratic. The of 179 points, ahead of New Zealand and Australia building itself was modern but it had some distinct who took second and third places with 144 and 119 peculiarities. For example, the bedrooms were so points respectively. In 2013, the GB team did not stuffed with furniture that you couldn’t open the attend the European Championships (in Seville), drawers without stacking up some surplus armchairs but will be competing at the event this year – in and putting them out in the corridor. None of the Belgrade at the end of May. reception staff admitted to knowing the hours of operation of the attractive-looking swimming pool (it gradually emerged that the answer was ‘never’). Equally, the restaurant did not always open when it might have been expected to (i.e. at mealtimes), while the bar opened only randomly and rarely and was in any case found to have little in the way of drinks on offer. Down at the lake, though, the action was magnificent. In this post-Olympic year many countries fielded relatively experimental teams and this showed through in the overall results.

Back to Contents Page World Rowing Under 23 World Rowing Junior Championships, Linz Championships, Trakai In 2013 the World Rowing Under 23 Championships Trakai in Lithuania was the venue for the World were held in Linz, Austria. Five of the ten GB crews Junior Championship. Competition was as fierce who entered came away with medals, with pride of as ever at this event and medals were particularly place going to Eleanor Piggot and Brianna Stubbs hard to come by but our one victory was an who took gold in the women’s lightweight double outstanding achievement. In GB’s first open-weight scull – in a closely fought final they edged out their women’s gold medal in this event, the single scull nearest rivals from Germany and New Zealand by title was taken in convincing style by Jess Leyden just over one second. of Hollingworth Lake RC, who rowed powerfully A similar margin separated our lightweight men’s through the field to end with clear water over her four from the Italian gold medallists, but they held nearest rival, from Belarus. on for a strong silver medal. Another very strong result was shown by the women’s eight who took an excellent silver medal behind the USA and ahead of third-placed Germany, while their male counterparts took fifth place in the men’s event. The increasing strength and depth of GB’s lightweight squad was emphasised by the bronze medals won by our men’s lightweight pair and women’s lightweight quad, as well as Zak Lee Green’s achievement in reaching the lightweight men’s single scull final after having endured a period of illness.

In the men’s eights event GB finished within 1½ seconds off gold but was squeezed into fourth place by a blanket finish of the first three crews. Germany emerged triumphant by one hundredth of a second. Three other British crews also reached the A finals – the women’s pair and the men’s coxed four and double scull.

The men’s quad, with a late substitution due to Reports by illness, narrowly missed out on a medal finishing in Ron Patterson fourth place.

Back to Contents Page Looking Forward - The 2014 Season

2014: Regatta Calendar The venues chosen for the 2014 season are closer to home than last year’s globe trotting regattas. The World Rowing Championships will be held in Amsterdam for the first time since 1977. The World Rowing Junior Championships will be held in Hamburg and the World Under 23 Championships in Varese. Travel details for this year’s supporters events will be circulated as and when details are finalised. We are looking at alternative travel suppliers for this year’s regatta season. The Southern hemisphere World Cup regatta is remaining a fixture for the 2014 season, however the GB Rowing Team will not be competing this year, this is taking place in March in Sydney.

Guides for Supporters: One of the key benefits of being a member of the GBRTS is the opportunity to share information with fellow members. A key benefit has always been the ability to access useful information about venues from people that you can trust. We have created some Venue Guides for the 2014 regattas; some are far more detailed than others and all are living documents and will be updated through the year as and when we receive updates to include. Please take a look at the current details in the Venues 2014 folder on the Yahoo site. If you have previously been to one of the venues please do not hesitate to comment on the content and send through any useful updates. We have also worked on creating an introductory guide to rowing as we know that many parents, friends and family have been asking for a simple guide explaining the sport, the equipment, the competitions and also to provide some guidance on how best to support our athletes and help to ensure that they can perform to their maximum ability at events. The first draft of this guide has also been posted on the Yahoo site and we would welcome feedback on how useful this is for our members.

Dates Event Location 28 - 30 Mar * World Rowing Cup I Sydney, AUS 9 - 11 May Munich Junior Regatta Munich, ger 16 - 18 May International Para-Rowing Regatta Varese, ita 24 - 25 May * European Junior Championships Hazewinkel, Bel 30 May - 1 Jun European Championships Belgrade, Srb 20 - 22 JUN World Rowing Cup II Aiguebelette, Fra 11 - 13 Jul World Rowing Cup III Lucerne, sui 23 - 27 Jul World Rowing U23 Championships Varese, Ita 6 -10 Aug World Rowing Junior Championships Hamburg, Ger 10 - 14 Sep World Rowing Championships Amsterdam, Ned

* GBRT Not Competing

Back to Contents Page Useful Website Links The GBRTS Committee www.britishrowing.org British Rowing (the national governing body). Look under the GB Rowing Team tab on the Sarah Tarrant top right to find material relevant to the teams Coordinator and international competition. Peter Beaumont www.worldrowing.com Deputy coordinator and venue information FISA (the International Federation for Rowing). This site gives details about international Peter Hodge events, results, profiles of athletes, etc. Treasurer and membership uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/GBRTS Alex Mowczan A forum for discussion and exchange of U23 team liaison information between members of GBRTS (requires password to access). Elaine Laverick Junior team liaison www.rock-the-boat.co.uk Suppliers of rowing and other clothing, Ron Paterson including an exclusive range for GBRTS Newsletter members. Sue Rodford www.newwaveuk.co.uk/Fisa-Products/FISA- Secretary DVD Suppliers of the official FISA DVDs of all recent Robin Walker Olympic/Paralympic regattas and World ICT support Championships. http://www.amsterdamrowing.com/en/ – The website of this year’s Senior World Championships. http://www.wru23ch2014.com/ The website of this year’s U23 World Championships. http://www.juniorenwmhh2014.de/index. php?id=home&L=3 The website of this year’s Junior World Championships.

Back to Contents Page