Hi everyone,
For those of you who haven’t seen the news in today’s papers , I’d like to confirm that Hodge and I have been selected into the coxless pair again for this season.
I can’t tell you how excited we are to continue racing together – we’ve been in the same team for nearly 7 years now and our partnership continues to feel fresh.
Part of why it works is that we have similar approaches to training and competition and I’m still so enthusiastic about training.
We know that there is a way to go if we’re to become the best in the world and bring back another gold medal in 2012, but this isn’t about want to get revenge on the New Zealand pair – It is about making ourselves as good as possible and winning. We know that we have to continue to improve.
We’re top athletes and our overwhelming desire is to be the best in the world.
I know there’s been a lot of speculation about us moving to a bigger boat in order to give us the best possible chance of winning gold both this year and next, but it’s fantastic for us that we’re being given a chance to prove to everyone, including ourselves, what big steps we have taken over the last few months.
Before Beijing, all I could think about was winning a gold medal and we had some setbacks along the way. If everything had gone to plan, we wouldn’t have developed the mental strength and the added drive we now need, to meet the challenges and come back to Britain as world champions.
If there’s anything Hodge and I revel in, it’s a challenge and there is no way that the last two years have been wasted.
It’s also a testament to us that Jürgen still believes that we’re the strongest two athletes in a very strong squad. There are so many great rowers in the team and we have to be on our toes just to prove we deserve to be where we are, and that can only be a good thing.
Now it’s up to us to prove we are the strongest coxless pair in the world this year. The full announcement for the main Siemens team takes place at 11am on 11 May at Caversham - Home to the GB Rowing Team. |
