Rowing: Britain name World Championship team

There were few surprises in the nineteen crews selected on Thursday for August's world rowing championships in Poland, and confirmation that the top Olympians will be remaining in the smaller boats.

Olympic champions Andy Triggs Hodge and Peter Reed are staying in the men's pair, despite the fact that they have now lost four times in succession to New Zealand's quick pair.

"All we can do is keep in our boat and do everything we can to go as fast as we can", said Hodge. "I've no idea if we can push on enough to close the gap. If I want to be first I know what I have to do. There's no secret behind always believing you're first and therefore somehow it will magically happen."

The plain fact is that if the world championships were raced tomorrow, Hodge and Reed would likely be well ahead of the pack, but second behind the New Zealanders. But the pay-off is longer-term. By keeping the pair intact, even if it risks a silver medal, chief coach Jurgen Grobler not only allows his top oarsmen to learn more about how to move boats skilfully, but also maintains the coxless four of Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory, Ric Egington and Alex Partridge, who have a chance of glory in one of the more open events this year.

Katherine Grainger has also come to terms with the possibility that aspiring to the top results may be difficult this year, since she is remaining in the single scull in which she came fourth at two of the World Cups. "It's a risk and it is calculated. I'm prepared to take the drop in funding [if I don't medal]", she said. "Because my real goal is as everyone knows, come three years time at the London Olympics, I want that gold."

The three adaptive crews which raced in Munich go to the worlds unchanged, Paralympic champion Tom Aggar having seen off a feisty challenge from new arms-only sculler Andy Houghton. The lightweight crews are also unchanged, World Cup champions Sophie Hosking and Hester Goodsell spearheading the team, with a lightweight women's quad and light men's single added in the non-Olympic events. Unless a lightweight men's pair is also selected later, these are the only non-Olympic crews going to the world championships.

GB team
(World Championships, Poznan, Poland, Aug 23-30)

Men
Single: A Campbell (Tideway Scullers).
Double: M Wells & S Rowbotham (Leander).
Quad: C Cousins, M Bateman, B Lucas, S Townsend (Reading Univ, Leander).
Pair: P Reed & A Triggs Hodge (Leander, Molesey, crew order tbc).
Four: A Partridge, R Egington, A Gregory, M Langridge (Leander, Reading Univ).
Eight from: T Broadway, T Burton, J Clarke, P Marsland, J Orme, T Ransley, N Reilly-O'Donnell, D Ritchie, T Solesbury, T Wilkinson, cox P Hill (Leander, London, Cambridge Univ, Univ of London, Reading Univ, Oxford Univ).

Lightweight single: A Freeman-Pask (Imperial Coll).
Lightweight double: R Williams & P Mattick (London, Leander).
Lightweight four: C Bartley, S Feeney, C Boddy, B Hewitt (Leander, London, Tees).
Lightweight pair may be selected later.

Women
Single: K Grainger (St Andrew).
Double: A Vernon & A Bebington (Marlow, Leander).
Quad: R Bradbury, B Rodford, S Cowburn, K Greves (Westminster Sch, Gloucester, Durham Univ, Leander).
Pair: O Whitlam & L Reeve (Agecroft, Leander).
Eight from: J Cook, J Eddie, A Freeman, A Knowles, L Maguire, N Page, T Stiller, M Wilson, two U-23 reserves tbc, cox C O'Connor (Leander, Univ of London, Wallingford, Thames, Reading Univ, Nottingham, Molesey, Oxford Brookes).

Lightweight double: H Goodsell & S Hosking (Reading Univ, London).
Lightweight quad: S Cullen, J Hall, L Greenhalgh, A Dennis (London, Leander).

Adaptive
Arms-only men's single: T Aggar (Royal Docks).
Trunk & arms mixed double: J Roberts & S Scowen (City of Swansea, Dorney).
Leg-trunk-arms mixed coxed four: V Hansford, J Roe, D Smith, N Riches, cox R Jones (Univ of Surrey, Stratford-upon-Avon, Reading Univ, Marlow).

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