In the trials Katherine and Anna will race against each other in the singles, effectively offering a friendly grudge match which should provide one of the highlights this weekend. We will also have the pleasure of seeing Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, world silver medallists for the past two years, joining forces in the pairs. I expect them to win their event fairly comfortably.
The progress of Helen and Heather has been tremendous. I remember watching them at the World Championships two years ago and telling a New Zealand newspaper that they had done well just to get to the final. They ended up winning silver! Last year they improved again, losing by the merest few inches to New Zealand. This time I think they?re ready to graduate to gold.
It?s pretty well documented that our flagship Olympic men?s boat will be the four but I don?t think selection is a closed shop yet. These trials, and the subsequent crew formation testing, will determine the make up and it is interesting to see Andy Hodge and Pete Reed, who were part of the victorious Beijing quartet, back together this weekend in an ultra-competitive pairs event which they serially win.
I was a little bit surprised to see them together this weekend. Maybe chief coach Jurgen Grobler wants them to be used as a benchmark against whom he can judge the others. Though they?ve won silver in the pairs in the last three World Championships and though the current quartet of Alex Gregory, Tom James, Ric Egington and Matt Langridge are reigning world champions, I still think the quality of Hodge and Reed is such that they will end up being brought in to bolster the four boat.
My old friend Greg Searle, seeking to become an Olympic champion after he turns 40 this month, some 20 years since he won in Barcelona with his brother Jonny, is a firm favourite to earn a place in the eight, which looks likely to be our second-ranked boat.
The eight will be favoured to win a medal and it would be a fantastic reward for Greg, who was out of the sport for 10 years, and all the remarkable effort he has made in his comeback. I admire him so much for what he?s done but if I turned 40 this month instead of 50, I think I?d have been doing the same, with the Games being on home waters.
Another interesting character to watch is Alan Campbell. He?s almost been a loner in some ways but that?s what single scullers are. I always wanted to be a single sculler ? I was an oddball but not odd enough to do it well!
Alan?s out to win at the trials for the seventh successive year, which demonstrates his extraordinary level of consistency, and though my gut feeling is he?ll still be in the single at the Games, where he could make the podium, they still haven?t ruled out putting him in a double.
Zac Purchase will not be competing this weekend, leaving his partner, Mark Hunter, to face a competitive lightweight men?s single scull, featuring Paul Mattick and Chris Bartley from the 2010 world champion lightweight men?s four as well as world Under-23 champion Pete Chambers.
But I?m pretty sure we?ll end up seeing Purchase and Hunter defending their Olympic lightweight men?s double crown in London, scenting gold along with so many of their colleagues. This weekend should offer a tantalising glimpse of the treats in store.
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