ROWING: Triggs Hodge to stroke GB eight (From Oxford Mail)

ROWING: Triggs Hodge to stroke GB eight

10:00am Friday 1st March 2013 in Sport By Ed Mezzetti, Sports reporter specialising in Rugby, Cricket and Athletics. Call me on 01865 425456

OXFORD’S double Olympic champion Andy Triggs Hodge will stroke the Great Britain men’s eight at the first World Cup in Sydney next month.

Triggs Hodge led the men’s four to gold at London 2012, but moves to the longer boat in what has been desribed as a “fun and new challenge”.

Alex Gregory, from Henley, and Oxford Blue Pete Reed, who won gold with Triggs Hodge last summer, also make the switch from four to eight.

Also included is Lance Tredell, a member of Henley’s Leander Club, who only started rowing at Oxford Brookes University in 2009.

GB rowing team performance director Sir David Tanner said: “The eight is proving fun and a new challenge to brush the winter cobwebs away.

“It is a good mix of our established big guns and new names.”

Gregory tweeted: “Very excited about racing in the 8 at the first World Cup in Sydney next month. Four years in the Coxless Four, new challenge ahead!”

Leander’s Matt Gotrel, Tom Ransley, Dan Ritchie and Phelan Hill (cox) complete the boat alongside Mo Sbihi.

GB’s new men’s four featuring Oxford Brookes duo Scott Durant and Matthew Tarrant, Alan Sinclair (Leander) and Nathaniel Reilly-O’Donnell.

Brothers Richard and Peter Chambers, past and present Oxford Brookes students repsectively, who won Olympic silver in the lightweight four, have been split up.

Richard will race in a double scull with Adam Freeman-Pask, while Peter teams up with Leander trio Chris Bartley, Chris Boddy and Jonno Clegg in the four.

Wheatley’s Fran Houghton and Wallingford’s Katie Greves row in a women’s eight that includes Helen Glover – Olympic champion in the pair.

Houghton also competes in a double scull with Leander’s Vicki Meyer-Laker, while Greves gets another outing in a pair with Jessica Eddie.

Oxford’s Olivia Carnegie-Brown is in the quadruple scull with Leander pair Monica Relph and Rachel Gamble-Flint plus Kristina Stiller.

Wallingford RC lightweight Kathryn Twyman will row in either a single or double scull.