KATHERINE GRAINGER said yesterday she is excited as ever at the prospect of competing in her fifth Olympics after being named in the GB rowing team for next month’s European Championships – the first major event ahead of the Rio Games.
The Glaswegian, who famously won women’s double scull gold at London 2012, is partnered in that boat for a second successive season by Vicky Thornley.
They took bronze in their first outing together at last year’s Europeans in Poznan, Poland, and went on to qualify the boat for Rio.
“The idea of competing at the Olympic Games was once just a dream and so it was incredible when I made the team in 2000,” said Grainger.
“Now, 16 years on and looking to my fifth Games, I still have the same excitement I did back then. It's the most amazing event to be part of and that doesn't change whether it's the first time or the fifth.”
Heather Stanning, from Lossiemouth, continues her outstanding women’s pair partnership with Helen Glover. The reigning Olympic, world and European champions are unbeaten since 2011 but Stanning says they are still improving all the time.
“It’s exciting to get back in the boat every year,” she said. “We have such a great working combination and it’s not like putting old slippers on – they’re not worn out, there’s still lots to come from us.”
Former World Champion Polly Swann, from Edinburgh, returns to the team after missing last season through injury, while Alan Sinclair has fought off some fierce internal competition to secure a place in the men’s pair.
Relative rookies Karen Bennett and Angus Groom also get the nod from the selectors, while Imogen Walsh and Sam Scrimgeour are also in the squad for the regatta in Brandenburg, Germany from May 6-8.
Swann has also won women’s pair gold with Glover, at the Worlds in 2013 and Europeans in 2014, but missed the whole of 2015 through injury.
A strong performance at the recent GB Trials, where she and Jess Eddie finished runners-up to Stanning and Glover, confirmed Swann’s return to fitness and she has been selected in the women’s eight along with fellow Edinburgh rower Bennett.
The latter – a graduate of the GB Rowing Team Start talent ID and development centre at Clydesdale RC in Glasgow – only made her senior debut last year, winning a silver medal in the women’s four at the World Championships in Aiguebelette, France.
Inverness rower Sinclair has boosted his chances of making his Olympic debut this summer after being selected in the men’s pair with Stewart Innes.
There was plenty of competition for places in the boat but Sinclair – who won European gold in the four last year – and Innes got the nod after a fourth-placed finish at last month’s GB Trials.
Glasgow-born Groom also impressed at the Trials, finishing third in the men’s single scull, and has been selected in the quad alongside the established trio of Peter Lambert, Sam Townsend and Graeme Thomas. That combination won gold at the Varese World Cup in Italy last summer.
Inverness rower Walsh will be looking to defend her European lightweight women’s single scull title in Brandenburg and keep up the pressure on Charlotte Taylor and Kat Copeland in the Olympic-class lightweight double.
Scrimgeour, of Kirriemuir, will contest the lightweight men’s pair with Joel Cassells – they won World Championship gold together last summer.
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