Rowing New Zealand will send one of its biggest ever elite teams to Europe to compete in the international Word Cup Regattas and Henley Royal Regatta as part of the build up to the 2010 Rowing World Championships which will run at Lake Karapiro from October 31 to November 7 - and there have been some notable changes to the successful team that last raced internationally at the 2009 Poznan World Championships.
Further trials will take place when the team returns in August after the final World Cup regatta prior to the announcement of the full team for World Championships. The Under 23 team for the World Championships at Brest, Belarus from 22nd to 25th July 2010 is confirmed.
World champions Mahé Drysdale; Eric Murray and Hamish Bond; Storm Uru and Peter Taylor and Duncan Grant remain in their usual boats, but 2005 world champion in the women’s pair Juliette Haigh has secured a set in the 2010 pair alongside Rebecca Scown.
There is a change to the men’s double scull with multiple Under 23 world champion Joseph Sullivan replacing Matthew Trott alongside Nathan Cohen. Trott moves into a new boat – a men’s quad – with 2006 Under-23 rowing champion Paul Gerritsen, Olympic bronze medallist in the pair Nathan Twaddle and the promising John Storey at stroke. Storey was a member of the Under 23 world champion coxed four in 2009, and has excelled to make the elite team for the World Cups.
Two men’s coxless fours will race in the World Cup Regattas and their form will be assessed prior to final trials in August for the Karapiro 2010 selected boat. One boat contains two of last year’s Under 23 coxless four champions Jade Uru and Hamish Burson, and they have been joined by David Eade who stroked the Under 23 coxed four to gold last year and Sean O’Neill, who has raced for many years in New Zealand but with dual nationality also represented Ireland in the coxless fours at the 2008 Beijing Olympic regatta. The second men’s four contains Under 23 world champions Tyson Williams and Ian Seymour, Ben Hammond – who was in the New Zealand men’s eight in 2007, and former junior world champion Auckland’s Michael Arms, who was a winner in the Under 21 pairs event at the recent BankLink New Zealand National Championships and who has been a regular reserve in the summer squad this season at Lake Karapiro filling in when injury and illness has kept other athletes on the banks.
In addition to the new look women’s pair, there is also a new line up in women’s double scull, with Fi Paterson joining Anna Reymer in the boat (pictured). The most experienced athlete in the women’s squad, Paula Twining, goes back in to the boat in which she won a silver medal in the 2001 world championships, the women’s quad. She is joined by Harriet Austin, bronze medal winner in 2009 in the pair Emma Feathery and Louise Trappitt, like Austin a survivor of the 2009 quad.
Former Junior and Under 23 single sculling world champion Emma Twigg retains her elite single sculling spot.
“The time between the final World Cup regatta in Lucerne in July and the start of the World Championships on our own home water does give us the opportunity to do further testing and we will do that as there are one or two outstanding athletes who are currently carrying injuries and we may be able to make faster boats when they are recovered,” explained High Performance Manager Alan Cotter.
“This group of athletes is phenomenal. Highly motivated and highly competitive and that can be seen in just how hard it has been to make any crew. We have high hopes for this group this year.” |
