POSTED: Wednesday June 6th 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STRONG ROWING SQUAD SELECTED TO TEAM GB FOR LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS

With just 51 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Olympics, the British Olympic Association (BOA) has announced today 48 rowers as officially selected to represent Team GB at the Games.

The rowers will compete across 13 of the 14 Olympic boat classes taking place at the Eton Dorney venue this summer. While selections are still to be finalised in the men’s and women’s eights boats, once these are confirmed in due course, the Team GB rowing squad for London 2012 will be 52 strong, including 5 reserves, and will be the largest Great Britain has ever entered to an Olympic Games.

The rowing athletes selected to Team GB today are: Name (Club, Hometown, Date of birth)
      

Men’s Pair:
George Nash (Molesey BC, Guildford, 02/10/89)
Will Satch (Leander Club, Henley-on-Thames, 09/06/89)
Coach: Christian Felkel

Men’s Four:

Alex Gregory (Leander Club, Wormington,11/03/84)  

Tom James (Molesey BC, Wrexham, 11/03/84) 
Pete Reed (Leander Club, Nailsworth - Gloucestershire, 27/07/81)
Andrew Triggs Hodge (Molesey BC, Hebden - North Yorkshire, 03/03/79)  

Coach: Jürgen Grobler         
          


Men’s Eight: note: one further rower will be added at a later date       

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


Men’s Single Scull:  

Alan Campbell (Tideway Scullers School, Coleraine, 09/05/83)
Coach: Bill Barry
 
Men’s Double Scull:        

Bill Lucas (London RC, Kingswear,13/09/87)  

Sam Townsend (Reading Univ BC, Reading, 26/11/85)  

Coach: Mark Earnshaw         
          


Men’s Quadruple Scull:      

Charles Cousins (Reading Univ BC, Willingham - Cambs, 13/12/88)
Stephen Rowbotham (Leander Club, Winscombe - Somerset, 11/11/81)
Tom Solesbury (Leander Club, Petts Wood - Kent, 23/09/80)
Matthew Wells (Leander Club, Hexham - Northumberland, 19/04/79)
Coach: Mark Banks

Women’s Pair:
Helen Glover (Minerva Bath, Penzance, 17/06/86)  

Heather Stanning (Army RC, Lossiemouth, 26/01/85)  

Coach: Robin Williams
          


Women’s Eight: note: eight from the ten rowers listed below will be confirmed as racing in the eight. The two rowers not racing in the eight will be selected as reserves.
Jo Cook (Leander Club , Sunbury-on-Thames, 22/03/84)
Jessica Eddie (Univ of London BC, Durham, 07/10/84)
Katie Greves (Leander Club, Oxford , 02/09/82)
Lindsey Maguire (Wallingford, Edinburgh, 15/01/82)
Natasha Page (Gloucester RC, Hartpury, 30/04/85)
Louisa Reeve (Leander Club, London, 16/05/84)
Emily Taylor (Leander Club, Lincoln, 28/06/87)
Victoria Thornley (Leander Club, Wrexham, 30/11/87)
Annabel Vernon (Leander Club, Wadebridge, 01/09/82)
Olivia Whitlam (Agecroft RC, Warrington, 16/09/85)
Caroline O'Connor (cox), (Oxford Brookes Univ BC, Ealing, 25/04/83) 
Coach: Nick Strange             
          


Women’s Double Scull:      

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


Women’s Quadruple Scull:
Debbie Flood (Leander Club, Guiseley -  Yorkshire, 27/02/1980)  
 
Frances Houghton (Leander Club, Oxford, 19/09/80)
Beth Rodford (Gloucester RC, Gloucester, 28/12/82) 
Melanie Wilson (Imperial College BC, London, 25/06/84) 

Coach: Ade Roberts         
   

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

Coach: Rob Morgan      

Lightweight Men’s Double Scull:

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

Coach: Darren Whiter


Lightweight Women’s Double Scull:
Katherine Copeland (Tees RC, Stockton-on-Tees, 01/12/90) 

Sophie Hosking (London RC, Wimbledon, 25/01/86)  

Coach: Paul Reedy 
          
        


Team GB has a fine Olympic pedigree in rowing, having won 54 medals to date, including 24 gold, making Great Britain the third most successful country in Olympic rowing history. At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Team GB rowers won an outstanding six medals - two gold, two silver and two bronze - to lead the medal table.

The athletes selected today have won multiple Olympic and World Championship titles, including at the 2011 World Championships where Great Britain’s rowers topped the medal table with three Olympic-class gold medals.

Team GB’s women will be aiming to record their first ever Olympic gold medal, with experienced triple Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger alongside Anna Watkins leading the women’s medal hopes in the Double Scull event.

Five of the six Olympic champions from Beijing are selected today.  Andrew Triggs Hodge, Peter Reed and Tom James will seek to defend their title in the men’s four - this time with Alex Gregory - and Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase will have the opportunity to do the same in the lightweight men’s double scull.

Greg Searle, 40, who won a gold medal two decades ago at the Barcelona 1992 Games in the Men’s coxed pair will row in the Men’s Eight. He will be competing in his fourth Olympic Games and his first since Sydney 2000.

The addition of the rowers brings the total number of athletes officially selected to compete for Team GB at London 2012 to 178 across fourteen sport disciplines: archery, athletics - marathon, badminton, boxing, canoe slalom, fencing, hockey, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, synchronised swimming, table tennis and taekwondo.

The athletes were formally nominated to the BOA for selection to Team GB by British Rowing, the National Governing Body for rowing in the UK. The announcement took place at the Harte and Garter Hotel in Windsor.

Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
“As we move into the final 50 days of preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games, I am delighted to announce the 48 athletes selected to Team GB in the sport of rowing. Once selections are completed in due course, Team GB will be represented by 52 rowers in total, including 5 reserves. This will be the largest rowing squad we have ever assembled for an Olympics, with athletes competing in 13 out of the 14 Olympic boat classes.

“The selection announced today is a great testament to the excellent strength in depth that has been developed in British rowing, led by Performance Director David Tanner, over the past two decades. I am confident that our rowers will play a leading role in Team GB - Our Greatest Team - and will once again challenge for the status of top rowing nation and look to emulate the six medal haul that they won in Beijing in 2008.

“The Team GB women, led by three-times Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger, will be aiming to record their first ever Olympic gold medal, and I’m sure the fantastic home support they will receive at Eton Dorney will spur them on to achieve their personal best performances.

“It is very appropriate that we are announcing the rowing team in Windsor so soon after the country has celebrated Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and I am sure the Team GB rowers will once again make the whole country proud with their performances this summer.”

Team GB Rowing Team Leader and GB Rowing Team Performance Director David Tanner said:
"We are an ambitious sport going into the Games and certainly the best supported we have ever been thanks to our funding from the National Lottery.  We go to the start in London ready to defend our status as the leading rowing nation from Beijing but we are under no illusion as to how tough winning medals, especially gold medals, will be at this Games".

Katherine Grainger said: "It's been an incredible honour and privilege to be part of the past three Olympic Games and as wonderful as they have all been there is a sense that the upcoming home Games will be on a different scale to anything we've ever seen before.  As athletes we already feel the incredible support, enthusiasm, pride and excitement from the public and that will just keep building to the Games. And I for one can't wait".

Andrew Triggs Hodge said: "It's such an honour to continue to be a part of such a strong team heading to London 2012. Such drive and dedication from all the athletes support staff and from the national lottery means this is the best team ever sent to an Olympic Games.  I'm just looking forward to helping to make GB proud".

Pete Reed said:  I'm thrilled to be part of the biggest British team ever at our London Olympics. I have been training for this all my life one way or another. I am a proud lieutenant from the Royal Navy, a proud Olympian and a proud Briton. I'm racing to win".

Mark Hunter said:  "The biggest honour in any athlete's career is to be a part of a home Olympics. My gold medal in Beijing was more of a personal journey but as London 2012 draws nearer I have become aware that I am part of something much bigger; British athletes competing for Queen and Country!"

Notes to Editors:
• With today’s announcement, 178 athletes have officially been selected to compete for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games: 47 rowers, 7 fencers, 4 badminton players, 10 shooting athletes, 6 table tennis players, 16 women’s hockey players, 6 archers, 6 marathon runners, 5 boxers, 5 slalom canoeists, 16 sailors, 38 swimmers and 9 synchronised swimmers.
• Team GB will compete in all 26 sports on the Olympic Programme in London 2012.
• Team GB is expected to consist of approximately 550 athletes.
• The rowing competition will take place from the 28th July to 4th August at Eton Dorney.
• Men’s rowing first entered the Olympic schedule at the Paris Olympics in 1900, while women’s events were first included in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games.
• Great Britain have won 54 Olympic medals in rowing, 24 of them gold, making them the third most successful country in Olympic rowing history.
• The Olympic rowing course was standardised at the Barcelona 1992 Games, with all races being competed over a 2000m distance. Until then, women had competed over a 1000m course.

For interview requests with GB Rowing Team rowers and performance personnel contact GB Rowing Team Press Officer Caroline Searle on 07831755351 / caroline@matchtight.co.uk. For further information on Team GB please contact BOA Communications Manager Phil Wilkinson on 07525 951067 / philip.wilkinson@teamgb.com.

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.

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.

About Team 2012:

Team 2012, presented by Visa, is the official support programme for British athletes striving to be selected for Team GB and ParalympicsGB in 2012.

Alongside National Lottery and Exchequer funding, Team 2012 helps to raise funds to support 1,200 athletes from 47 Olympic and Paralympic sports and disciplines who are in training to be selected for Team GB and ParalympicsGB at London 2012. Funds raised are invested in six key areas across 47 different Olympic and Paralympic sporting disciplines:
• Coaching and athlete management
• International travel to both compete and train abroad
• Medical support including sports psychology, physiotherapy, nutrition and intensive rehabilitation
• Facilities
• Kit and equipment
• Home Games preparations e.g. preparation camps
For more information on Team 2012, visit http://www.team-2012.com

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Keywords · British Olympic Association · BOA · rowing

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Name: British Olympic Association Communications Team
Organization: British Olympic Association
Email:
Phone: 442078425700
URL: http://www.olympics.org.uk

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