IMOGEN WALSH IN GB ROWING TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
posted by Roy Sinclair - 20 Jul 2011, 9:10 a.m.
Five Scots, including three-time Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger,
were announced in the GB Rowing Team to compete at the World Championships in
Bled, Slovenia, from August 28 - September 4, 2011.
There is a debut call-up for Imogen Walsh from Inverness, who gets a place in
the women's lightweight quad scull, and the British crew will be hoping
to improve on last year's fourth place finish. 27-year-old Walsh has
enjoyed a successful season to date, with victory in the lightweight double
scull at the Holland-Beker International Regatta last month. :D
Aberdeen's Grainger and partner Anna Watkins are the defending World
Champions in the double scull and were unbeaten in 2010 across three world
cups. An injury to Watkins early in the season saw Grainger race the first
world cup event of the 2011 season in Munich with substitute partner Mel
Wilson, but this scratch combination proved strong enough to pick up gold.
Grainger followed this up with gold at the final world cup event in Lucerne,
back rowing with her regular partner Watkins.
Britain will be looking for relative newcomers Heather Stanning and Helen
Glover to continue their rapid rise to the top, with the duo named in the
women's coxless pair. 26-year-old Stanning from Lossiemouth and her
partner Glover, have both come through the fast-track 'Start' talent
identification and development programme, and they took a silver medal at last
year's Championships as effectively the spare pair. This year, after
winning gold at both the Munich and Lucerne world cup events, the pair will
head to Slovenia as the lead women's sweep boat.
The British women's eight just fell short of the Lucerne podium and the
eight rowers, including Edinburgh's Lindsey Maguire, who competed there
are now part of a group of nine, and they will face further internal trials
before the final crew is announced.
2009 World Champion in the adaptive mixed coxed four David Smith, from
Dunfermline, returns to the crew after a year away from the sport and he will
be hoping to help his crew improve upon last year's silver medal.