GB SENIOR TRIALS

Hazewinkel, Belgium

15 - 16 April 2007

Report by Leander Press Officer Robert Treharne Jones

Photographs (c) Peter Spurrier www.intersport-images.com

Leander's Pete Reed completed a hat trick of wins in the men's pairs at senior trials in Belgium over the weekend. Competing with fellow world champion Andy Hodge of Molesey they dominated the opposition in Monday's final, pushing Olympic champion Steve Williams and former junior world champion Matt Langridge back into second place.

With 36 athletes invited to Belgium the Leander squad, sponsored by Invesco Perpetual, were by far the largest contingent from a single club, and some impressive results right across the board will have helped set our athletes right on track for international tickets during the coming season.

Three wins in three years not only confirms the pair's dominance - it also reopens the debate on where chief coach Jurgen Grobler may choose to focus his resources in the run-up to this year's world championships in Munich and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"That was the best race we've had in the pair for the last two years. We were confident that no-one else could beat us" said Reed afterwards. "All I needed to say was 'Go' at the right time - Hodgey stepped up to the max and I was just trying to keep up."

With a winning time of just 6 mins 27.99 secs it was the first time any British crew had beaten the 6mins 30secs barrier at national trials.

Grobler had planned to focus on a group of six athletes through the winter to compete for places in the four. Whether he will continue with the formula that has seen Great Britain gain world and Olympic gold in the four for the last three years or return to the pair as lead boat remains to be seen.

But if there is a choice to be made on the four or the pair it's not within the athletes remit to make that choice.

"We've been in this position before - we've never gone to Jurgen and both years we've won gold. We respect what he's going to do" said Reed.

In the women's singles final all the focus was on Debbie Flood and Katherine Grainger after their fellow world champions Sarah Winckless and Frances Houghton had to withdraw with injury and illness. Alongside them on the start line were world bronze medallists Annie Vernon and Anna Bebington, the Leander athlete who scored a surprise win ahead of Grainger at the last long distance trials in Boston.

During this weekend's time trial Debbie Flood had beaten Grainger by more than two seconds but it was the Scotswoman who led from the gun in the A final and rapidly established a lead while Flood led the chasing pack. Approaching the last 500 metres the race for third between Vernon and Bebington closed the gap ahead and Vernon just grabbed second place by 0.15sec ahead of Flood on the line.

With Winckless' injury now looking likely to affect early season's selections Vernon is now hotly tipped to take a place in the women's quad, but seat racing over the next two weeks will be crucial in determining the exact line-up for the first World Cup regatta in Austria in June.

Three Leander athletes contested the men's single sculls final, including last year's world bronze medallists in the double sculls, Steve Rowbotham and Matt Wells, and Athens Olympic sculler Ian Lawson. But it was Alan Campbell of Tideway Scullers who dominated the early stages of the race with Wells just a couple of seconds astern followed by Rowbotham and Lawson. In a burst for the line Wells narrowed the gap to just 0.55 second but Campbell got there first to confirm the sort of dominance which earned him his first World Cup gold medal last year in Munich.

The race evidently impressed the coaches on the towpath.

"It was good to see the double having no respect for Alan!" said Jurgen Grobler after the final.

The final of the lightweight men's singles provided the first opportunity for Leander captain Mark Hunter to race head-to-head with world champion Zac Purchase. Despite training together in the double over the past several weeks in anticipation of their possible selection together for the new season their training schedule in singles had never previously coincided during work pieces.

James Lindsay-Fynn, Hunter's doubles partner for the last two years was first two show, but Hunter moved through and reached the 500m split two seconds ahead of the field. As the scullers settled into the race Hunter maintained the edge over Purchase with the rest of the field more than five seconds behind, but with 300m to go Purchase made his move. The struggle between the two contenders for this year's double moved further away from the pack, but the world champion was unstoppable and won by 2.4 secs ahead of Hunter.

It wasn't just the A finals where Leander impressed - Under-23 athletes Tom Wilkinson and Charlie Burkitt, whose faces are familiar to many members behind the club bar, came second in the B final of the men's pairs. They finished ahead of world champion Alex Partridge who had to team up with Tom Solesbury at short notice after his regular pairs partner Rick Egington had to withdraw through illness.

RESULTS

(Non-Leander athletes in italics)

Full results on the ARA website

PREVIEW

12 April

The GB Rowing Senior Trials take place next Sunday and Monday (15 and 16 April) in Hazewinkel, Belgium, where 36 Leander athletes from a total of 153 contenders will be aiming for a place in the GB squad. Their ultimate aim this season is the 2007 World Championships in Munich, where the top boats will also qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Lead coaches Jurgen Grobler, for the men, and Paul Thompson, for the women and lightweights, have added spice for occasion by signalling that the seats in the lead crews are open to change.

Both the GB men's four and the GB women's quadruple scull are reigning world champions. Yet names like Andy Hodge, Peter Reed, Alex Partridge and even Olympic champion Steve Williams alongside double Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger, Fran Houghton, Debbie Flood and Sarah Winckless know that being a world champion or Olympic medallist does not mean that selection into the lead boats is a foregone conclusion.

Pressure to the established order in the event could come from names such as Leander's Anna Bebington, who raced to world cup medals with Annie Vernon in the double scull last season, and scored such a notable victory ahead of Katharine Grainger in last December's trials at Boston, Lincs. If she can repeat that form this weekend then she must be looking for a place in the women's lead boat when places are announced next month in advance of the World Cup regatta series.

Leander's Matt Langridge, a former world junior single scull champion, who competed in the men's eight last year after switching from the men's quad in which he competed in 2005, subbed into the men's four for an injured Alex Partridge two months ago in Seville at the FISA Team Cup and may fancy his chances of breaking through again.

He races in a pair with Steve Williams in Belgium whilst Partridge has teamed up with Molesey's Tom Solesbury after his club-mate Richard Egington reported sick. Molesey's Andy Hodge and Leander's Peter Reed, meanwhile, will be looking to repeat their wins of 2005 and 2006 in the men's pair and Hodge will be seeking his fourth win in a row after victory in 2004 with Partridge.

Already there is talk on the towpath that if Reed and Hodge can pull off another trials win then Jurgen Grobler may be looking to make the pair his lead boat for Beijing.

Leander's Colin Smith, winner of a world cup silver in the men's pair last season, has joined forces with emerging youngster and world junior champion, Tom Lucy of Oxford Brookes University.

The men's single scull looks to be a fascinating contest involving Alan Campbell, the 2006 world cup leader, with Leander's Steve Rowbotham and Matt Wells, world bronze medallists in the men's double scull last year. Ian Lawson, who represented GB in the men's single at the Athens Olympics, could also spring a surprise.

In the men's lightweight single Leander captain Mark Hunter has made the running all winter while reigning world champion Zac Purchase looks set to join him in the men's lightweight double - the only Olympic sculling boat in the men's lightweight programme.

ENDS