The first round of selection for the 2023 season is upon us for the national team. For the senior sweep team, 2022 proved to be a golden year. After a disappointing Tokyo Olympics, the senior team was bolstered by an influx of exceptional young talent that saw medals in each sweep boat class – a gold for the eight and four, and a bronze for the pair; the most successful World Championships for the British men’s sweep side in living memory.
Considering the strength of the team at the moment, and the results that the team have already seen, breaking into the Caversham bubble will certainly be a tough task. For the purpose of this preview I won’t mention any athletes who raced at the World Championships, instead focussing on some of the athletes who might be up to the challenge of breaking into the main squad.
As the draw has yet to come out and we don’t know pairs combinations yet, I’ll be featuring individual athletes who I think could put out a strong showing this weekend.
Feli Drinkall (Leander Club)
A former OUBC President and GB U23 athlete, Drinkall has quickly cemented his position as one of Leander’s top sweep athletes, but failed to crack Caversham last year after a disappointing performance in the pair with now World Champion David Ambler. Drinkall will certainly be back with a vengeance this year. A fierce competitor and technically highly proficient, Drinkall has a wealth of experience and is an asset in any position in the boat. If anyone has a chance at breaking into the Caversham bubble this year, it might be Felix.
Harry Glenister (Leander Club)
Glenister has been in and around the senior team since 2019, and narrowly missed qualifying the pair for the Tokyo Olympics with Morgan Bolding (now a World Champion in the eight). Harry had a promising season last year, and formed a good partnership with Tokyo medallist Josh Bugajski, but after losing to Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith a couple of times, both Glenister and Bugajski were not selected for the World Championships. Glenister will now be looking to start off the season with a good result and make sure he’s back in contention for a seat in a boat come the summer.
Leonard Jenkins (Leander CLub)
Lenny Jenkins is one of the group of youngsters that have made such massive waves at Caversham from 2021. A Yale graduate and a U23 gold medallist, Lenny is a great talent, but his progress was hampered last year by injury. He’ll be looking to step on this year and see if he can earn a seat in one of the World Championships boats.
Matt Rossiter (Leander Club)
A Tokyo Olympian from the fourth-placed foud, Rossiter will be looking to earn his seat back after a year away from the team. Known for his tenacity and toughness in training, Rossiter is an incredible competitor and will want to prove that he is still one of Britain’s top talents. He’s capable of a standout performance at trials and if he can achieve this it’ll make some of those current squad guys feel uncomfortable.
Oliver Wilkes (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Oli Wilkes has been a fixture of the best Brookes boats from the past few years after learning to row at Liverpool and then Edinburgh University, he has made the step up to the senior national team with aplomb. A spare for the 2022 World Championships, Wilkes will want to secure a seat this year, and that battle will start this weekend. Wilkes is both a powerful and pretty technical athlete, and I expect he’ll put out a great performance at November Trials.
Jacob Dawson (Leander Club/Plymouth ARC)
Jacob Dawson is another Tokyo Olympian who stepped away from the team last year. Probably the most decorated athlete in this field, with a host of IRA National Championship titles with the University of Washington and various World Cup and European Championship wins, and of course, an Olympic bronze medal.
He’s struggled with injury over the past couple of years, and so it remains to be seen what shape he’s in at the moment and how he’s going to manage getting back into the swing of the national team, but given his considerable experience, I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s back in the mix.
James Robson (Leander Club)
Robson has been a mainstay of Leander’s top eights for the past couple of years, and has flirted with the senior national team a few times. A former Newcastle University athlete, Robson is exceptionally powerful and has enjoyed significant success at Leander. He’ll be keen to make an impact at trials this year.
Ryan Todhunter (Leander Club)
Todhunter is another athlete that has been on the cusp of the national squad for a few years now while training full-time at Leander. A talented stroke-man, Todhunter has been part of some very quick units, and rowed at World Cup III in 2021. He’s one of Leander’s top talents, and it would be great to see him really establish himself with the senior national team this year.
Sam Bannister (Oxford Brookes University BC)
Joining the senior national team after an incredible career at Brookes, Sam has struggled with injury over the past year, but has been performing well at Caversham and will be looking to put down a good marker for the start of the season. Another phenomenally powerful athlete, he’ll be keen to show his prowess in the small boat as the season gets going.
George Rossiter (Leander Club)
Matt’s younger brother George has been on the fringes of the senior national team for some time, and has represented GB at the senior level before – in the pair with Harry Glenister in the 2019 season. It will be interesting to see how he fares in this stacked field, and whether he can make a move towards establishing himself firmly in the senior squad.
Prediction
This is a great, competitive field that shows the depth of talent at the top end of the sport in the UK. Indeed, one could imagine putting together any kind of combination from the names listed above and have a competitive, international-standard boat. This is an unprecedentedly exciting time for British rowing.
While the returning internationals should fill most of the top spots, their season has started later than many of the others which may give those trying to break through an edge. An upset could certainly come from the likes of Matt Rossiter and Jacob Dawson who will presumably partner up, or Felix Drinkall who has performed well at trials in the past, and his partner.
Best of luck to all.
Five Man
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