With lightweight rowing coming into the last two years of its inclusion as an Olympic event, there are more and more questions raised as to the level of support that British Rowing are willing to commit to these events. Whilst the women’s lightweight selection yielded a gold medal at the senior World Championships this summer, and the U23s produced a solid A final result, the men’s side has been far less straightforward.
The two outstanding lightweights in the country are Dale Flockhart and Jamie Copus. Both were head and shoulders clear of anyone else last year throughout the trials process. Having said that they never could produce the speed the selectors deemed necessary to progress the crew beyond their seventh place finish at the European Championships in Munich.
Seniors
Dale went on to race the lightweight men’s single at Worlds, placing fifth in the B final. Jamie took himself stateside for the Head of the Charles, where he dominated the lightweight single field, in a time that placed him as the second fastest open-weight sculler. On this basis it seems as though the pattern will be similar of these two guys being the outstanding duo, if and how this translates into the Olympic class boat remains to be seen.
U23s
In terms of the U23s the women have proved the support will be there should a combination emerge that is capable of producing the necessary prognostics on GMT. The U23 field seems to have a lot of untested names this year, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the course of the trials process. With entries coming from clubs with strong pedigrees such as Edinburgh, UL and Leander, these athletes will all feel they have something to offer, but how that develops over the course of the season remains to be seen.
Prediction
In both the cases of the seniors and U23s there is a lot to prove. With the lifetime of lightweight rowing being limited with every passing day, it is crucial that all of these guys perform at such a level that convinces the selectors to invest in lightweight crews for the final two years of the Olympic cycle and both senior and U23 level.
The top scullers will undoubtedly be Copus and Flockhart, but the real challenge for the lightweight men will come when they are challenged to perform against tougher international competition.
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