News

Posted: August 15, 2016

Three Glasgow rowers will be aiming to emulate the achievements of their Team GB counterparts in Rio when they represent the GB Rowing Team at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Rotterdam later this month (21-28 August).

All members of Glasgow Schools Rowing Club, Josh Armstrong, Alex Rankin and India Somerside are part of the team hoping to follow up last year’s outstanding Worlds where GB won a trio of medals in Rio.

Glasgow’s India Somerside (front) and Alex Rankin, Photograph by Rob Eyton-Jones

The standout success from a year ago was a first ever gold for a GB men’s quadruple scull with a crew featuring two Scots, Josh Armstrong and Gavin Horsburgh.

Whilst Horsburgh has since moved up an age group and will compete in the under 23 Worlds at Rotterdam, 18 year old Armstrong is still part of the junior men’s quad which is aiming to defend its title.

“The trials process this year has gone well so my aim would be to try and replicate what happened last year and be able to win gold again,” said Armstrong.

Whilst the junior men’s quad has not yet raced they have been training hard together and the signs point to them being a quick boat.

“This year we have a really good average erg score within the boat so we have all got the physiological requirements needed,” said Armstrong who, as the stroke, is responsible for setting the rhythm.

“Now it’s about learning to move together and row together.  But we have definitely got it in us to do well again this year.”

Like Armstrong, 18 year old Alex Rankin competed for the GB Rowing Team at last year’s World Junior Championships in Rio, which doubled up as the Olympic test event.

She admits it had been daunting competing at this new level, but in good racing conditions she soon found her feet and her boat progressed to the A Finals, finishing sixth.   

“The Rio test event was pretty cool,” said Rankin.  “It was quite overwhelming at first as it was one of the most important races I’ve done at the most prestigious regatta I’ve ever been to.

“It was a difficult course because the middle section is open and it’s exposed to the wind coming off the sea.  But we were lucky with the conditions which were good.”

Second time around Rankin is looking forward to the Rotterdam experience, particularly as she will have her friend and club mate, India Somerside (17), racing in the four with her.

“This will be my first junior worlds and it was really brilliant to be selected,” said Somerside.

“That was my goal for this year and now it’s happened I’m over the moon and looking forward to seeing how I can perform there, which is exciting.”

Rankin and Somerside have competed in both sweep and scull boats this season in GB trials and club competitions. Their highlight so far was winning their four’s race in the Munich regatta.  

“In Rotterdam we are looking for the best race we can do,” said Rankin.  “Obviously to get a medal would be great but there’s a long way to go and we still have a few weeks of training left.  

“I learnt a lot from the training environment in Rio last year.  It was all the tiny things we did outside the boat like monitoring heart rates and weight every morning so we could get a picture as the training intensity increases and see how we were doing.  

“We’ve now started monitoring our physical condition a lot more so we can tailor our training to how we are feeling, so I feel a lot more prepared this year.”

There are many similarities between the three Glasgow rowers.  India’s father, Iain Somerside, is the coach responsible for their success, and he will be joining them in Rotterdam having been appointed as the GB Rowing Team coach for the junior women's four.

All three athletes are supported by Scottish Rowing and the sportscotland institute of sport, which helps in particular with Strength and Conditioning and physiotherapy.

At the end of the summer they will all head east to begin degrees at the University of Edinburgh, which has been working in partnership with Scottish Rowing since 2010 and last year became Scotland’s first GB Rowing Team accredited High Performance Programme.

“I looked at the English universities but there’s nowhere that seemed any better than Edinburgh which is becoming one of the forefront universities in the UK for rowing,” said Armstrong.

“Rowing has taken off on a large scale in Scotland over the past couple of years.

“The Scottish programme has improved a lot, more athletes are coming through so there’s more competition at regattas.

“That’s all helping athletes such as myself to get onto the big stage and compete for GB.”

Scots competing in the GB Rowing Team at the 2016 World Championships, Rotterdam (21-28 August)

Senior
 
Callum McBrierty (Leander Club/Edinburgh) Coxed pair
Imogen Walsh (London RC/Inverness) Quad scull
Sam Scrimgeour (Imperial College BC/Kirriemuir) Pair

Under 23s

Gavin Horsburgh (Edinburgh University/Lochwinnoch) – Quad scull
Graham Ord (Edinburgh University/Hamilton) - Pair
Calum Irvine (Edinburgh University/Aviemore) - Eight
Maddie Arlett - (Edinburgh University/Selkirk) – Quad Scull
Lewis McCue (Robert Gordon University/Aberdeen) - Four
Harry Leask (Leander Club/Edinburgh) – Quad scull
Rowan McKellar (Broxbourne RC/Glasgow) - Four
Matt Curtis (Edinburgh University/Durham) - Quad scull
Robert Hurn (Leander Club/Glasgow) – Eight

Under 18s

India Somerside (Glasgow Schools RC/Glasgow) Four
Alex Rankin (Glasgow Schools RC/Drymen) Four
Josh Armstrong (Glasgow Schools RC/Glasgow/Glasgow) Quad scull