| Selection announcement |
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The usual training venue was today overcrowded with journalists, photographers and the BBC all wanting to hear David Tanner (International Manager) announce the World Cup crews for the first big race of the season next week. My crew will again be the coxless four, but with a new look.
Four times Cambridge blue and club president, Tom James will be joining me, Hodge and Stevie, instead of Alex, to start the season's racing. This change is a big deal to all of us involved. It is a strange feeling to have our 4 man unit from the last 3 years changed around as the grand finale approaches; poignant in many ways: this change around is a most clear-cut example of how cruel and tough sport can be. Alex is a fantastic athlete; he is a very strong racer and puts his heart and soul into everything that he does so it is sad for me to see him move into the 8. However, I trust Jurgen's judgement without question and getting a new athlete into the bows has brought freshness and new perspective to our rowing. Especially someone as high class and smooth as Tom. He is a master technician with great boat feel and knows how to get the most out of his crew. We have been rowing together for the last 3 weeks and so far so good. It clicked together well from the start and we have seen a steady rate of improvement since then. Communication is good, we all have a place and important role and all this combined makes training very motivating at the moment. Next week we will fly to Germany for the first big race of the season. The World Cup in Munich. This was the venue of our defeat in September last year so we will be facing our demons in a way. I want to go there as the under-dog this time. Just quietly going about our business and then race to see how fast we are. The coming days and weeks are going to be all about trying to go faster and eventually as fast as we possibly can. |
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