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Four into eight goes well
Published online Friday 8th June 2007

This article was originally submitted to the Telegraph but there wasn't space for it to be published in the newspaper.

Britain's world champion men's four will race in an eight at the next World Cup regatta, to be held in Amsterdam in two weeks time. The surprise announcement was made yesterday and is said to be viewed as a change of scene and reward for good results last weekend in Linz, where the four beat the Netherlands twice. "It's a chance for us to learn a bit more about ourselves", said fours strokeman Andy Triggs Hodge yesterday. "There's no point having another race against the same crews again. I think it's a sign of confidence: [coach] Jurgen Grobler told us with a big smile on his face." The change is, however, likely to give the Dutch a chance to gain enough points to win the overall World Cup trophy.

The world-beating quartet of Hodge, Steve Williams, Alex Partridge and Peter Reed will be joined by new gold medallists Colin Smith and Matthew Langridge, while James Orme and Marcus Bateman have a chance at development in the last two places. The super-eight will be steered by London cox Phelan Hill, a Henley winner and Commonwealth gold medallist who coxed Leander 2 in the Eights Head earlier this season. The main British men's squad eight will also race in Amsterdam, with a line-up change expected after their fifth place finish in Austria belied the speed they have shown in training.

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World bronze medallist Tom James also returns to the squad for the next regatta, after completing his engineering finals exams at Cambridge: he is likely to race in a pair to start with. The question will be where the super-eight, with no form in the event, will place relative to the squad eight. Reed and Hodge, along with Bateman, raced in a British eight at the Canal Cup last October, beating world champions Germany on home water. "That was a last-minute project, and that came together well", said Hodge yesterday. The world champions will split their training time between the M4- and the M8+ in the two weeks before the Amsterdam regatta.