Scott Durant, Tom Ransley, Andrew T Hodge, Matt Gotrel, Pete Reed, Paul Bennett, Matt Langridge, Will Satch and cox Phelan Hill are named for Rio today. This crew pressed the German Olympic Champions all the way to the line before narrowly taking silver at last month’s world cup in Poland.

Hodge and Reed have twice won Olympic gold in the men’s four. Ransley, Langridge and Hill were men’s eight bronze medallists in London, while Satch won bronze in the men’s pair.

Gotrel, a former international sailor who swapped to rowing at University, Bennett and Durant will be making their Olympic debuts.  All three have been in either World gold medal winning crews or on the World podium in other boat classes.

In all three men’s eight World finals, the main opposition has come from Germany.  However, the Dutch, third at last year’s World Championships and winners at the Lucerne World Cup, will also prove strong contenders in Rio this summer.

Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell and Mat Tarrant will provide cover for the Olympic open-weight men’s sweep squad.  The duo have been World Champions themselves in the eight since London.

Team GB also announced today that Vicki Meyer-Laker will be the reserve for the open-weight women’s squad.  That brings the total of rowers to 47 and completes the selection for the sport – click on the expander box below to see the full squad.

The squad will now be focussing on a month of hard training in European-based camps before travelling on to Rio.

Mark England, Team GB’s Chef de Mission, said: “GB has had powerful success in the men’s eight since London 2012 and we are delighted to welcome this crew into Team GB today.”

Sir David Tanner, 91��ɫ Performance Director and Team GB Rowing Team Leader, said:  “The GB men’s eight showed strong form at the season’s world cup finale, taking a superb silver and putting the Olympic Champions, Germany, under pressure. We are taking one of our strongest open men’s sweep squads to the Games in Rio and the men’s eight is one of our headline crews.”

The men’s eight (who may have been watching Star Wars on training camp by the looks of things) hope the force will be with them when the Olympic rowing regatta starts in 36 days time.

Matt Langridge said: “It’s great to be officially selected in the eight, I’m very confident that this group of guys have what it takes to win in Rio and, with Jurgen’s programme, we’ll be in the best possible shape come Rio – the force is strong with that one.”

Scott Durant said: “It feels great to be selected but now the real work begins. In my experience there is no such thing as luck.”

Andrew T Hodge said: “Do. Or do not.  There is no ‘try’. Rio, here we come, finally.”

Will Satch said: “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”

Phelan Hill said: “It’s a real honour to be selected to represent for Team GB at the Olympics. The circle is now complete. When I competed at London, I was but the learner now I am the master.”

Paul Bennett said: “Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!”

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Already missing Olympic medallists Constantine Louloudis and Peter Reed from the men’s four and eight respectively – who were recovering at home from a virus – Heather Stanning from the Olympic, World and European Champion women’s pair and Peter Lambert from the men’s quadruple scull succumbed pre-race to a different condition.
There was drama too for the men’s four who came through to take gold in a race where the Australians caught a speed-sapping crab* just a few metres from the line.
“That wasn’t exactly a text book way to win”, grinned Alex Gregory afterwards.  “But it shows how strong our squad is that we can swap in Callum [McBrierty] and still pull out the win. He’s a great guy.”, he added.
“We could have stayed away and trained at home but we didn’t want to shy away from it. This has been invaluable experience’. said Mohamed Sbihi.
Great Britain added a spectacular silver from its women’s eight as they came crashing back towards the World and Olympic champion American crew in the final 500m to fall short by mere fractions of a second.
“That was really exciting and I hope we can get them next time”, said Karen Bennett.
“We showed how effective our rowing can be”, said Melanie Wilson.
The men’s quad went out to race with sub Jack Beaumont on board and took a superb silver behind the Australians.  Beaumont was kept busy later in the day when he raced in the second-ranked men’s double to a sixth place – no doubt making his dad and 1988 Olympian Peter Beaumont proud of his doubling-up feat.
“It was a bit surprising to be up by so much in the early part of the race but we knew the Australians had a good sprint.  In a last minute combination like today there is only so much you can do but we are pleased with the result and there is still a lot more we can do” , said Groom.
Bronze came from Nathaniel Reilly O’Donnell and Mat Tarrant who might also have been awarded silver, so close was the photo-finish with the Dutch at the end of a race which the British crew had led in the early phases and which was won by New Zealand.  Bronze for GB came as an addition to the world cup gold they won in Varese early last month.
There was disappointment, though, for the men’s eight who finished an agonising fourth in a race won by the Dutch rather than the Olympic-champion German eight who had been pre-race favourites.
Britain backed those results with three top six finishes in the morning session, taking fifth in the lightweight men’s double scull and four and the open men’s single scull.
The lightweight men’s double raced here for the first time since Richard Chambers injured his hand and they looked fast in the early phases before showing their lack of race practice in the final quarter of the race.  Chris Bartley, Mark Aldred, Jono Clegg and Peter Chambers made a strong challenge for bronze until the final 250m when they faded.
Alan Campbell showed an upward curve from his European Championships performance to take fifth place in the open men’s single scull in a race won by Mahe Drysdale of New Zealand.
Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing Team Performance Director, said:  “I am very pleased with our medals – all of them high quality in their different ways.  Well done to Callum McBrierty for subbing into the men’s four and Jack Beaumont in the men’s quad.  These two results were great but underneath that there has been the frustration of illness before we came and in Lucerne today.
“Helen and Heather showed in their semi-final their top form but sadly were unable to race today but what a wonderful result from our women’s eight taking silver behind the World Champions from the USA.
“We will take a lot of positives form this but hope to get healthy again very soon to enter our final pre-Olympic racing in Poznan next month”.
For reaction to this report and interview requests please contact the GB Rowing Team press office on site:  comms@gbrowingteam.org.uk or 07831 755351
For pictures please contact:  GBRTPressOffice@GBRowingTeam.org.uk or  07765 071683
If you missed the live BBC coverage today, don’t forget to catch up on i-player.
*When the oar clips the water and flies out of control”.

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In nigh-perfect racing conditions, a trio of GB Rowing Team crews moved into the semi-finals of the season’s opening World Rowing Cup in Varese, Italy.

Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell and Matthew Tarrant controlled their men’s pair heat from start to finish as they qualified directly for tomorrow’s semi-finals with a confident performance.

They finished ahead of Serbia’s Nenad Bedik and Milos Vasic, who were bronze-medalists at last year’s World Championships in Aiguebelette.

Reilly-O’Donnell and Tarrant are joined in the semi-finals by the second GB pairing of Oli Cook and Callum McBrierty after they finished third in Friday afternoon’s repechage, a repeat of their placing in the morning’s heats.

Nick Middleton and Jack Beaumont also went into the men’s double scull repechage – taking place on Saturday – after finishing fourth in a high-quality heat won by Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic, the two-times World Champions who are now unbeaten in 19 races.

Beaumont is back racing after a serious injury sustained last summer and is returning to form.

Ellie Piggott and Emily Craig are through to the semi-finals of the lightweight women’s double scull after an exciting conclusion to their heat.

The GB crew applied some good early pressure to South Africa’s Kirsten McCann and Ursula Grobler, bronze-medalists at the 2015 World Championships, but then found themselves pegged back by Elisabeth Woerner and Ilse Paulis of the Netherlands with 500m to go.

Piggott and Craig responded well, though, and won a sprint for the line to take the second qualifying place behind South Africa.

Zak Lee Green and Jamie Kirkwood were eventually comfortable runners-up in their lightweight men’s double heat after a tight first half to the race when there was little to choose between the leading four.

Ireland’s Gary and Paul O’Donovan eventually pulled away to take the win, with Lee Green and Kirkwood also easing into the semi-finals as they finished 15 seconds clear of the third-placed crew from the Netherlands.

FISA, rowing’s World Federation, has revised the racing schedule for tomorrow and Sunday because of predicted adverse weather conditions. Finals of the international class races will be tomorrow and the finals of the Olympic class races will be brought earlier on Sunday.

For full information visit:  www.worldrowing.com

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