News

Posted: July 15, 2014

FIVE Scottish rowers have been selected as part of a 50-strong GB Rowing Team squad of up and coming rowers that will travel to Varese, Italy, for the World Under-23 Rowing Championships taking place there from July 23-27.

The 50 rowers will compete across 13 boat categories and the Championships will provide them with a chance to impress on the world stage and to follow in the footsteps of a number of former GB winners who are now permanent fixtures in the senior squad.

Glasgow’s Angus Groom has been selected in the double scull with fellow Leander Club rower Jack Beaumont and they are two young men to watch out for in the men's squad. They have already competed for the senior GB squad this year as the second-ranked open double scull at the Aiguebelette World Cup and at the European Rowing Championships.

Groom, 22, is amongst a number of rowers in the squad who competed at last year’s U23 World Championships in Linz, Austria and he is joined in the men’s team by Aberdeen’s Lewis McCue, Edinburgh’s Callum McBrierty and Denny’s Cameron Buchan, all of whom were in Linz.

19-year-old Robert Gordon University student McCue, who is part of the Scottish Rowing Performance Programme supported by the sportscotland institute of sport (Grampian) and Winning Students, has been selected to stroke the men’s coxless four whilst his crewmate from last year, Leander Club’s Callum McBrierty, 21, is once again in the coxed four taking McCue’s place in the stroke seat this time round.  Fellow Leander Club athlete Buchan, 21, a student at Northeastern University in Boston, retains his place in the men’s eight.

Edinburgh’s Melissa Wilson took up rowing whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge University and has since rowed in two Oxbridge Boat Races.  The 21-year-old will sit in the ‘3 seat’ of the women’s eight which will be looking to maintain or improve upon last year’s silver medal won by a crew which featured Aberdeen’s Iona Riley.

A number of these athletes are set to be announced in the Scotland Rowing Team for the Commonwealth Rowing Championships when Scottish Rowing announces its team later this week.  The Championships are taking place on the 9-10 August at Strathclyde Park, North Lanarkshire.  The Scotland Rowing Team will also be competing at the Home International Regatta in Cork, Ireland, on 26 July.

GB ROWING TEAM FOR WORLD U23 ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS, VARESE, ITALY
(Scottish athletes in bold)

OPEN

WOMEN

Eight
Katie Bartlett (Nottingham RC/Nottingham/02.02.1994)
Anastasia Chitty (Oxford Univ Women’s BC/London/07.12.1993)
Melissa Wilson (Cambridge Univ Women’s BC/Edinburgh/10.06.1993)
Georgia Francis (Imperial College BC/Newbury/18.08.1994)
Sam Courty (Bath Univ BC/Alnwick/07.01.1993)
Ruth Whyman (Gloucester RC/Tewkesbury/07.03.1992)
Fiona Gammond (Headington School Oxford BC/Bicester/19.10.1992)
Nicole Lamb (Newcastle Univ BC/Hexham/20.01.1993)
Morgan Baynham-Williams (cox) (Leander Club/Ross-On-Wye/28.06.1994)
Coach: Jesse Burgoine

Single Scull
Jess Leyden (Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club/Burnley/22.02.1995)
Coach: Ian John

Quadruple scull
Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne (Gloucester Hartpury/Hereford/01.10.1994)
Holly Nixon (Leander Club/Enniskillen/07.12.1993)
Jo Wratten (Tees RC/Middlesbrough/23.03.1992)
Lucy Burgess (Northwich RC/Northwich/27.04.1994)
Coach: Pete Sheppard

OPEN

MEN

Four
Jamie Cook (Univ of London BC/Windsor/02.07.1992)
George Rossiter (Leander Club/Newbury/09.03.1992)
James Rudkin (Newcastle Univ BC/Litchborough/07.07.1994)
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon Univ BC/Aberdeen/26.12.1994)
Coach: Brian Young

Eight
James Johnston (Leander/Henley-On-Thames/26.08.1994)
Tom Ford (Newcastle Univ BC/Holmes Chapel/03.10.1992)
Cameron Buchan (Leander/Dunipace/03.12.1992)
Tom Pagel (Griffen BC/Oxford/28.05.1994)
Morgan Hellen (Molesey BC/Maidstone/19.10.1992)
Tom George (Leander/Oxford/22.09.1994)
Ed Grisedale (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Congleton/09.12.1993)
Ollie Wynne-Griffiths (Molesey BC/Guildford/29.05.1994)
Ian Middleton (cox) (Cambridge Univ BC/Oxford/27.06.1995)
Coach: Steve Trapmore

Double scull
Angus Groom (Leander Club/Glasgow/16.06.1992)
Jack Beaumont (Leander Club/Maidenhead/21.11.1993)
Coach: Matt Beechey

Coxed Four
Sybren Hoogland (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Norwich/03.11.93)
Tim Grant (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Sevenoaks/02.07.1993)
Will Warr (Leander Club/Tunbridge Wells/12.03.1992)
Callum McBrierty (Leander Club/Edinburgh/13.08.1992)
Harry Brightmore (cox) (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Chester/01.07.1994)
Coach: Angelo Savarino

LIGHTWEIGHT
WOMEN
Single scull

Emily Craig (Univ of London BC/Mark Cross/30.11.1992)
Coach: Phil Gray

Quadruple scull
Ellie Lewis (Agecroft RC/Marlow/14.04.1994)
Jess Elkington (Exeter Univ BC/Exeter/29.08.1992)
Gemma Hall (Newcastle Univ BC/Wargrave/10.04.1992)
Lucy Cruxton (Reading Univ BC/Stoke-On-Trent/22.12.1993)
Coach: Phil Gray

LIGHTWEIGHT

MEN

Pair

Wilf Kimberley (Imperial College BC/London/15.07.1992)
Charles Waite-Roberts (Univ of West England BC/Basingstoke/06.11.1992)
Coach: Stuart Whitelaw

Four
Jamie Copus (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Chicago/30.01.1993)
Iain Mandale (Isis BC/Surbiton/27.01.1993)
Tim Richards (Imperial College BC/Goring-On-Thames/17.05.1992)
Joel Cassells (Oxford Brookes Univ BC/Coleraine/15.06.1994)
Coach: Henry Bailhache-Webb

Single Scull
Sam Mottram (Leander Club/Stoke Mandeville/14.11.1994)
Coach: Clive Cooper

Notes:

·         Scottish Rowing is the governing body for rowing in Scotland and is supported by sportscotland, the national agency for sport.
·         Scottish Rowing supports its clubs and coaches to produce athletes capable of representing the GB Rowing Team.
·         The sportscotland institute of sport provide expert support services to our most promising rowers based in Scotland.
·         Rowing is one of Scotland’s most successful Olympic sports with 2 Olympic and 1 Paralympic gold medals won at London 2012 [Katherine Grainger: women’s double scull, Heather Stanning: women’s coxless pair & David Smith: mixed LTA coxed four]
·         Scottish Rowing is currently working to grow participation and improve performances across Scotland with a number of exciting initiatives targeting junior and under 23 development.

For further information please contact:

Lee Boucher
High Performance Co-Ordinator
Scottish Rowing
lee.boucher@scottish-rowing.org.uk
07818 077612

For media enquiries about the GB Rowing Team please contact the GB Rowing Team Press office at Matchtight Ltd on (01225) 384211 or press@matchtight.co.uk or gbrtpressoffice@matchtight.co.uk

For pictures please e-mail gbrtpressoffice@matchtight.co.uk

GB Rowing Team website, including full rower biogs: www.gbrowingteam.org.uk