Amateur Rowing Association - The Home of British Rowing
Factfile
GB Rowing describes the Teams, Squads and Programmes which make up the pathway for Great Britain to compete at international rowing events. GB Rowing is supported by its sponsors, Camelot and Siemens, and Lottery Funded through UK Sport.
Rowers come through a process of trials to be selected for various teams each year. The main events are:
Rowing at the top level is tough and demands many hours of training each day. A dedicated team of coaches as well as sports science and medicine staff work with the rowers to achieve the highest level of performance possible.
GB Rowing’s performance strategy, for teams at all levels, is devised and run by David Tanner, who is the Amateur Rowing Association’s (ARA’s) International Manager and GB Rowing’s Performance Director. This includes talent identification and development schemes such as World Class Start and the High Performance Programme in clubs (both sponsored by Siemens). He is backed by Chief Coaches Jurgen Grobler (Men) and Paul Thompson (Women and Lightweights). There are also GB squad coaches working with individual crews.
On average there are between 60-80 rowers in the GB Rowing senior squad at any one time as well as many more club-based rowers across the junior, U23 and talent development schemes.
Rowers come through a process of trials to be selected for various teams each year. The main events are:
- Olympic & Paralympic Games (every four years)
- World Championships – at junior, U23 and senior level (annually)
- World Cups (3 each year)
- European Championships (annually)
- FISU World University Championships (every two years)
Rowing at the top level is tough and demands many hours of training each day. A dedicated team of coaches as well as sports science and medicine staff work with the rowers to achieve the highest level of performance possible.
Who’s Who?
GB Rowing’s performance strategy, for teams at all levels, is devised and run by David Tanner, who is the Amateur Rowing Association’s (ARA’s) International Manager and GB Rowing’s Performance Director. This includes talent identification and development schemes such as World Class Start and the High Performance Programme in clubs (both sponsored by Siemens). He is backed by Chief Coaches Jurgen Grobler (Men) and Paul Thompson (Women and Lightweights). There are also GB squad coaches working with individual crews.
On average there are between 60-80 rowers in the GB Rowing senior squad at any one time as well as many more club-based rowers across the junior, U23 and talent development schemes.
Rowers and crews
- Steve Williams is part of the current GB squad. He won Olympic gold in the men’s four in Athens in 2004. This quiet and unassuming athlete is trying for a second gold in Beijing this year.
- Katherine Grainger is the leading GB female rower. She won Olympic silver in both 2000 and 2004 and is a four-times world champion. Britain’s current crop of leading women is one of the strongest ever with Fran Houghton, Debbie Flood, Elise Laverick and Sarah Winckless all having won Olympic medals alongside Grainger in 2004.
- The GB men’s four of Steve Williams, Pete Reed, Alex Partridge and Andrew Triggs Hodge, won the world title in 2005 and 2006 and staged a remarkable unbeaten run of 27 races during the course of 2005, 2006 and part of 2007.
- Pete Reed, twice a world champion (2005 and 2006), came to rowing quite recently. He was serving in the Royal Navy in 2001 when he astonished experts with his times on the ergometer (indoor rowing machine). He then rowed at the University of the West of England whilst studying mechanical engineering there. By 2005, after a stint at Oxford University, he was a GB Trials winner in the pair and went on in that year to become world champion. He is said to have a bigger lung capacity than even Sir Matthew Pinsent who won four Olympic gold medals. He became a Royal Navy Lieutenant in 2007.
- Al Heathcote and Robin Bourne-Taylor who were part of GB’s bronze medal winning men’s eight at the 2007 World championships are both serving soldiers. Al has done a tour of duty in Iraq and Robin is likely to go with his regiment to Afghanistan after the 2008 Olympic Games.
- Tom Lucy is the youngest member of the current GB squad, aged 19. Annie Vernon, already a world champion in the women’s quadruple scull and world double scull bronze medallist Anna Bebington both came into the sport through the World Class Start Programme. Sam Townsend, Alex Gregory and Bill Lucas are also graduates of this scheme.
- Richard Chambers was the first Briton to cross the line when his lightweight men’s four won world championships gold in 2007. This was the nation’s first world championships gold medal since the boat became an Olympic class. Earlier that season, the crew had also won the overall world cup title. Richard comes from the same town and school as Alan Campbell – GB’s open weight men’s single sculler.
- Helen Casey, part of GB’s lightweight women’s double scull crew since 2002, is a qualified medical doctor.
- Stephen Rowbotham, part of the GB men’s double scull with Matt Wells, could have been a tennis player rather than rower.
The Team
- In 2007, Britain won the FISA (world rowing federation) Trophy which is awarded for the best World Championships performance and GB Rowing’s women’s quadruple scull were FISA Women’s Crew of the Year whilst coach Paul Thompson was the FISA Coach of the Year.
- GB Rowing won seven medals in Olympic boat classes at the 2007 World Championships – its best performance to date – and took the world cup overall title.
Did you know?
- Experts say that a top rower, as well as training hard, needs to have good rhythm. Perhaps that’s why many of our current GB senior squad are also talented musicians.
- Zac Purchase part of the men’s double scull with Thames Waterman Mark Hunter, who so sensationally won the World U23 lightweight single scull and the world senior silver medal both in 2005, is a good saxophonist.
- Olympic medallist Elise Laverick plays the double bass to concert standard, world champion James Clarke plays the French horn, lightweight sculler Hester Goodsell is a music teacher and former world champion Pete Reed plays the piano.