Leander New s Leander Club Newslette r Summer 2011 Triple Crown ! c i h p a r g o t o h P t e J Our lightweight quad of Kieren Emery, Nick Fearnhead, John Preston and Dave Jones secured Leander's first win of the new season at the Fours Head in November. The start of the 2011 season has Leander has now become the first club The lightweight crew of Dave Jones, Nick been outstanding for Leander Club. ever to win all three trophies outright Fearnhead, Kieren Emery and last minute While our Great Britain squad members in the same season. sub John Preston looked well drilled, a credit have been part of the biggest-ever The Fours Head turned out to be a battle of to the athletes and their coach Rob Dauncey . medal haul at the World Championships the academy athletes as the internationals Their time came seconds faster than the in New Zealand, our Academy athletes had only just finished racing at the World heavyweight quad of Alan Sinclair, Ben have helped ensure that Leander Championships and were enjoying a Duggan, Dave Read and Will Satch. This has dominated the Tideway. holiday before winter training commenced. resulted in Leander holding finish After winning the Four's Head, the positions 1 and 2. Women's Head and the Men's Head Four crews in the top ten was a great start. Continued on page 2 LeanderClub ® www. leander. co.uk I sensed a real determination with the Continued from page 1 women’s crew for the Head. The eight steered by Phelan Hill containing Lou Reeve, Jo Cook, Emily Taylor, Ro Bradbury, Annie Vernon, Anna Watkins, Vicky Thornley and Katie Solesbury looked impressive as they came down the course. It was no surprise to see them over thirty seconds ahead of the second placed composite eight of national team members. Coaching was a real team effort between Matt Beechey, Rob Dauncey and Mark Banks. r The Men’s Head was going to be a clash of i e W some quality crews this year, with Molesey n i a desperate to retain the title and Leander I wanting it back. This year proved to be one Leander took the Women's Head pennant by a margin of 34 seconds over their nearest rival, just missing the course record by just 0.6 sec. of the most focused and enjoyable times of race preparation I have enjoyed in any Academy athletes Will Satch, Kirsty Myles was a great success. Guests interested in Leander eight’s Head crew. On the day of and Emily Taylor have shown solid what being an elite athlete is like arrived at the head I had to withdraw from the event development over the winter and have Leander for a behind-the-scenes look from due to illness. Simon Hislop who had won started training in the national team all angles. It was great to see everyone the Boat Race the week before stepped in system. This shows that the athletes and helping each other from committee, staff, for me, for which I cannot thank him the academy system are gaining coaches, volunteers and athletes. This enough. The seven other athletes - Ben momentum and on the right track for interaction between everyone highlighted Duggan, Will Satch, Alex Partridge, Pete the future. why the Club is in such a strong position Reed, Alex Gregory, Matt Langridge and The recent ‘Join the Journey’ evening and ready for the summer racing. Dan Ritchie, coxed by Phelan Hill regained hosted at the club by Sir Matthew Pinsent the Head of the River title from Molesey. The lightweight eight was put together late for this event as some of the athletes were away on a club camp in Spain. In the short time they were together things came together nicely, although Mark Hunter had to withdraw due to a niggling injury. Stroked by Chris Bartley the lightweight world champion, they came home in 4th place, winning the Lightweight Pennant. The senior Pennant was awarded to the group of Academy athletes who may contest the Ladies Plate at the Royal r Regatta this year. They finished just outside i e W n the top ten by a tiny margin. This leaves the i a I athletes encouraged about the next steps Despite the loss of two seasoned internationals Leander regained the Head pennant by steps for the coming racing season. four seconds, to complete a notable trio of Head victories. Page 2 Leander Club 2011 Summer Newsletter LeanderClub ® A glittering array of Leander’s World and Olympic medalists greeted visitors to the club’s recent launch of ‘Join Leander’s Journey’ – the long-term strategy which will help fund the Leander Academy, the development rowers that the club hopes will be its future Olympians. Since rowing was introduced as an Olympic sport Leander's athletes have won 99 medals - more than any other single sport-club in any Club captain Rick Egington, with Director of Rowing sporting activity in the world. The Club's legendary stars include Mark Banks and Sir Matthew Pinsent at the launch household names such as Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent, James of Join Leander's Journey Cracknell and Steve Williams, but everyone is hoping that next year’s event at Eton will herald the magic 100. And it was Pinsent himself who hosted the launch event and placed the focus very much on the club’s aspiring athletes who will star over the next Olympic cycles to 2016 and beyond. “Leander was my home, virtually night and day. It was the perfect home for myself and Redgrave and others of our generation” said the four times Olympic champion. “But the best thing to hope for is to see the continued success of Leander Club and its athletes” he continued. In their first official function since returning triumphant from their most successful world championships in history the club’s athletes went on to reveal many of the secrets of their training to crowds of members, corporate guests and the visiting media. Displaying public speaking skills which matched their excellence on the water, the likes of Olympic champion Mark Hunter and World Champion Anna Watkins guided the guests through a series of displays around the club. The exhibition, coordinated by former world champion Toby Garbett, gave a glimpse of the factors required for success - coaching, equipment, nutrition, physiotherapy, training schedules, and much more besides. Of more than 70 athletes in training in the club, almost half are currently in the GB squad, while the remainder - tomorrow's rising stars - continue to receive world-class coaching, excellent equipment, subsidised meals, dormitory accommodation when necessary and the support of professional teams in areas such as physiotherapy, massage and even media training. All that costs more than £400,000 a year to support – a sum which the subscriptions generated from Leander’s worldwide membership of 3500 cannot cover. Hence the need for the club to look outside its boundaries to corporate organisations who share its ethos of teamwork, commitment, excellence, success and, ultimately, winning. “We are looking for sponsorship, but it’s going to be a different sort of support. We want our sponsors to feel engaged and involved” said Sir George Cox, the club president. “That’s why we’ve entitled this strategy ‘Join Leander’s Journey’ – we want people to join us together on that Journey.” Potential sponsors can look forward to a wide range of benefits, including multi-channel communications, and a wide variety of branding opportunities, as well as corporate entertaining possibilities and a host of bespoke events. “Many people talk about the golden age of Leander as though it was in the past. But that’s still in the future – there’s still more to come” said Sir George. Leander Club 2011 Summer Newsletter Page 3 LeanderClub® www.l eander.c o.uk Stepping up ‘Hippo Happenings’ our monthly newsletter Ivor Lloyd reports from the Chairman’s Office carries up to date information on our forthcoming events as well as giving the We continue to value your membership latest news of our rowing groups and their without which we would not have a club. progress. If you are not receiving this it will We want you to appreciate that your support only be because we do not have your e-mail genuinely assists our athletes in achieving address. Please do contact the office to their goal, but also that you feel that you get update them with your details if you would good value from your membership, especially like to receive this. Again for those able to in these hard times where we are all finding visit the club you will see an information that money does not go as far. We wish to screen in the lobby that carries a rolling ensure that when you visit the club, you commentary of all our latest news, all part of get high quality service and an exceptional keeping you in the picture. experience. For those not able to visit us regularly, we keep you fully engaged by At HRR we have had praise for the improved communication about our improvements we have made over the last activities both on and off the water. Last two years and we are introducing further year we started the drive on improving the enhancement that will give our members an membership experience, and in the past even better experience this year. For the first river view whenever possible. Occasionally year we have made some significant time last year we introduced a BBQ on due to other users this may not always be improvements.