Local Rowers Back in Training with GB Rowing Team for 2012 Olympic Season
World medallists in the GB Rowing Team from Yorkshire and the North East returned to training for the start of the 2012 Olympic season this week.
Just three weeks after winning medals at the 2011 World Championships Durham's Jess Eddie and Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, Newcastle's Kieren Emery, York's Tom Ransley and Hebden's Beijing gold medallist Andy Triggs Hodge returned to their punishing training schedules in record temperatures for the countdown to London 2012.
Eddie won bronze in the women's eight, Reilly O'Donnell won silver alongside Ransley in the men's eight and Emery won gold in the non-Olympic class lightweight men's pair at the start of September in Slovenia. Triggs Hodge, who won Olympic gold in the men's four, had another shot at the World Champion New Zealand pair with Pete Reed on Lake Bled, but had to settle for silver once more, prompting interest in boat selection for next summer.
2010 World Champion Debbie Flood from Guisely joined them out on the water after qualifying the women's quadruple scull for London 2012 at the World Championships but missing out on a medal.
Three-times Olympic silver medallist and 2011 World Champion Katherine Grainger also returned to the team's purpose-built base in Caversham this week for her fourth Olympic season. She said: "It's nice to come back to weather like this. This is the one we've all been waiting for. It is a home Games. Because I have had the previous experience I think I know what the build up will be like but there's so much more interest and coverage than ever before."
Fellow Olympian Stephen Rowbotham won bronze in the men's double scull with Matt Wells from Hexham at the Beijing Olympics and was in the quadruple scull with Tom Solesbury, Lucas and Townsend for the 2011 season, revealed the harsh truth of the return to "winter" training though.
"It's been a bit of a shock to the system," said the former tennis player who learned to row while at Durham University. "We push ourselves beyond the point that your body wants to be pushed, until your vision goes and you start tasting blood. There's a little part of your brain that enjoys it and the rest that says it's a bad idea."
Solesbury, was on the brink of looking for a job this time last year after struggling to recover from a shoulder injury. He said: "It's good to be back. And it's nice being out in the single (scull). The fact it is the start of the 2012 season is very significant. I'm normally excited about going back to training but now I'm even more excited and just want to get as fast as possible.
"The introduction by the coaches 'Welcome back to Olympic training' was enough for me. Everything we've done in this Olympiad is important but it has all been building up to this year."
"I almost wasn't here this time last year, I was thinking I was going to have to look for a job. It was 50/50 but I decided to switch to the single, luckily it went well and I got back in the team." Solesbury was part of the men's quadruple scull with Bill Lucas, Sam Townsend and Rowbotham last season which won an impressive silver medal at the final world cup in Lucerne before finishing seventh at the World Championships - a result which he says they are keen to erase in 2012.
Tom Ransley from the men's eight explained the situation the whole team find themselves in though for the winter months - having to prove themselves all over again.
"It is something I'm used to through doing the Boat Race and my time with the GB Rowing Team," he said. "Every year you have to fight for your seat. It keeps you honest and training as hard as you can to stay in your seat. I'm really excited though 2012 is a massive goal and ever present in your mind."
The GB Rowing Team, which is lottery funded and sponsored by Siemens, will go through a series of training camps and assessments ahead of the senior trials next March, which will shape the squad for the world cup series before the London 2012 crews are announced in June.