GB Trials 2021/22 – Senior Men’s Sweep (Second Instalment)

February’s GB long distance trial saw Boston descended upon by national team hopefuls, both U23 and senior athletes battling over the somewhat bleak 5km stretch. This was a particularly interesting trial on the senior end, as it was the first true test for the young ‘Project Paris’ athletes fresh on the Caversham scene against the old guard from the Tokyo Olympiad. The trial saw some tight racing and some very interesting results – results that could shape the course of the future of the GB rowing team.

For this review, I’ll be looking in-depth at each pair that was fully senior (only containing senior athletes, no U23s).

1st – Ollie Wynne-Griffith & Tom George

Wynne-Griffith and George have been rowing together for over a decade, so it’s fantastic to see them take the top spot here. Juniors at Radley together before moving on to successful careers at Yale and Princeton respectively, Wynne-Griffith and George have been mainstays of the GB senior team since the start of the Tokyo cycle (with George competing at the 2017 World Championships while still studying at Princeton). They’ve won a host of World and European medals over the past few years and capped off the Olympiad with a bronze at the Games back in August. Highly motivated and competitive, their Olympic performance will have only fuelled the fire to attack the next three years in the build-up to Paris.

They’re both studying at Cambridge this year, allowing them to continue their training within the highly successful CUBC infrastructure while pursuing Masters degrees. Clearly, this has been a brilliant decision with regards to their performance. Under the watchful eye of CUBC Head Coach Rob Baker, who is inching towards the realm of truly legendary coach, the pair has not only successfully navigated Wynne-Griffith switching to bowside fairly recently – a move that is clearly most difficult in a small boat – but has established themselves firmly as frontrunners in the next iteration of the GB senior team. This shouldn’t, perhaps, come as any surprise, given their pedigree, but it will certainly be a massive confidence boost for the pair as they look towards The Boat Race and moving back to Caversham in the months beyond. I would be surprised if these guys didn’t form the foundation of GB’s top boat in the years to come.

2nd – Harry Glenister & Oliver Wilkes

Glenister and Wilkes had another fantastic showing after their win in the first GB trial back in November. Both of these guys have some senior international experience but aren’t yet solidly established at Caversham, which makes their consistent performances all the more impressive. Leander oarsman Glenister raced a few times in the GB Men’s Pair in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics, but failed to qualify the boat at the FOQR. Wilkes comes in from the powerhouse Oxford Brookes programme, making his senior debut in 2021 at World Cup II, again in the pair. Perhaps it is this wealth of small boats racing experience that is paying dividends for the athletes; for now, they can enjoy a well-earned position at the very top end of GB senior rowing.

3rd – David Bewicke-Copley & Freddie Davidson

This was perhaps the most impressive performance of any pair at February trials. Bewicke-Copley and Davidson are fresh on the Caversham scene, having graduated from Princeton and Cambridge respectively in 2020 and spent a year at Brookes rowing in the Grand Challenge-winning eight. While the pair have had senior international racing experience at World Cup III last year, they are undeniably the youngsters of the current senior team. To produce such an impressive result, then, against such a high calibre of opposition, is incredibly encouraging for the future of these athletes and of the national team in general.

Both athletes have been at the top of their game for essentially as long as they’ve been rowing. Bewicke-Copley made waves as a junior at Eton, competing at U23 level in his final year and producing dominant ergo performances. He moved on to Princeton University, rowing in the First Varsity every year and (unofficially) setting a new record for 100km on the erg. He’s a massive talent, and it seems he’s only gone from strength to strength after a valuable year at Brookes and his first few months at Caversham.

Meanwhile, Davidson attended St Paul’s as a junior and quickly made a name for himself as a technical powerhouse. He made the Cambridge Blue Boat as a fresher – the first since Tom James – and quickly became the figurehead of Cambridge rowing for four years. He smoothly made the transition from U23s to senior international racing, and will undoubtedly continue his meteoric rise. Look out for these two in the years to come.

4th – Matthew Aldridge & Joshua Bugajski

This is an interesting pairing as it’s the only example of a new ‘Project Paris’ athlete – Oxford Brookes’ Matthew Aldridge – put with a member of the ‘old guard’ – bow seat of the GB Men’s Eight in Toyko, Josh Bugajski. They had a very strong performance in February, losing out to the third-placed pair by just a tenth of a second after a very strong first half.

This is clearly a crew of significant pedigree. Bugajski has been a fixture of the senior team since the start of the Tokyo cycle, and Aldridge has enjoyed a storied career at university level, winning several Henley titles with Brookes and many U23 medals along the way before making the step up to the senior team for World Cup III last year. They’re both powerful athletes whose strengths lie in sheer force production, so it’s impressive to see them perform so well in the pair. Their result is made all the more impressive by the fact that Aldridge, rowing at bow, only made the switch over to bow-side in January. Like Wynne-Griffith, Aldridge showed remarkable tenacity to step on so dramatically after switching sides, and it once again bodes well for the future of GB senior rowing to have athletes who are clearly so adaptable.

5th – Tom Digby & Sam Bannister

Rounding out the top five is another very talented, young pair with a bright future on the national team. For those who have been following junior and student-level rowing for the past few years, neither name will need any introduction. Tom Digby has been at the top level of the sport in each age group since he started rowing, and was the star recruit at Yale back in 2016 where he had an unbeaten four years in the First Varsity. He’s won numerous world U23 medals, has Henley titles to his name, and is absolutely on track to become a real powerhouse on the senior team. Bannister is a product of the GB World Class Start programme and the Brookes Olympic Pathway Programme. He’s a very powerful athlete who has seen tremendous success as part of the Brookes programme, and made his senior international debut at World Cup III last year, like so many of the ‘Project Paris’ athletes.

Both of these guys are big, power-focussed athletes, so to see them perform so well in the pair is incredibly encouraging. Could we see these two sitting in the middle of a GB Olympic eight in 2024? It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

6th – James Vogel & Ryan Todhunter

Vogel and Todhunter are both Leander athletes that are pushing into the fringes of the Caversham scene, coming in as hard-working and tenacious competitors that perhaps lack the ‘star power’ of the Project Paris, ex-Brookes athletes. Vogel has international experience at U23 level, but Todhunter is the standout athlete here, having worked his way into contention at Caversham through technical ability and sheer perseverance. These two will be delighted to have placed so competitively in such a stacked field, and I hope that their result puts them into serious contention for a lengthy stint on the senior team. As smaller, more technical guys, I could easily see them racing the pair at senior international level over the next few years.

7th – Sholto Carnegie & Rory Gibbs

Carnegie and Gibbs both rowed in the Men’s Four in Toyko, at stroke and three respectively. The four final was a brutal race that saw GB edged out of the medals after a furious sprint, and no doubt Carnegie and Gibbs will be absolutely chomping at the bit to go out and have another go in 2024. They’re both stellar athletes, coming out of Yale and Brookes respectively and seeing a huge amount of success before enjoying a very successful Olympic cycle, marred only by the very last result.

They’ll probably be disappointed with their trials result. Being over 30 seconds back on the Cambridge winners is not a position they’ll want to be in, or be used to being in. That being said, clearly some of the Tokyo guys have worked their way back into training at different speeds post-Olympics; while Wynne-Griffith and George were catapulted straight into Boat Race training, Carnegie and Gibbs may well have taken some well-earned time off post-Games. They’ve still clearly got great base speed, and they’ll be in the hunt for seats in the top boat at Paris. Clearly, however, there’s no room for complacency this year; the field is stacked with impressive young talent.

8th – James Rudkin & Matt Rossiter

Another pair of Tokyo Olympians that will likely be disappointed with their result, Rudkin and Rossiter come out of the Men’s Eight and Four, respectively. They are hugely experienced athletes and both are real testaments to the power of hard work and absolute commitment to training, moulding them into real paragons of consistency. It’s surprising to see them a little off the pace here, though as with Carnegie and Gibbs, this may be just down to a restful post-Olympic period. Undoubtedly they’ll continue to lead the squad into the next Olympiad. The sheer volume of talent currently within the team does raise some interesting questions about boat lineups and rankings, and it will be interesting to see where the established Tokyo athletes are placed.

9th – David Ambler & Matthew Rowe

A solid result for two young oarsmen, particularly given Rowe was just acting as a facilitator here. Ambler is definitely one of the main figures in ‘Project Paris’ – he’s an effective combination of power and technical prowess that makes him a formidable competitor. Forged alongside Freddie Davidson in the crucible of SPSBC, Ambler made his way to Harvard where he spent four years in the First Varsity, and won a host of U23 medals along the way. He, like many of the athletes in this field, as well as his pairs partner, made his senior team debut at World Cup III in 2021. Ambler is now at Oxford, rowing in the two seat of the Blue Boat (testament to the number of stellar athletes at OUBC currently).

The Ambler/Rowe pair was let down perhaps by a bit of a slow first half, but had a pretty blistering second half to put themselves into the top ten. Expect Ambler to be a fixture of the senior team over the next few years, and look out for Rowe, too; he’s made waves at Brookes since he joined the programme back in 2017, and may well force his way onto the Caversham scene post-graduation.

10th – Will Stewart & James Robson

Rounding out the top ten is a strong pairing of Stewart and Robson, both Leander Club athletes with an outside chance at making a boat for the next Olympiad. They bring very different things to the table: Robson is a power-oriented athlete while Stewart is a smaller, technical guy whose speciality is small boats. They had a great first half over the Boston course, but suffered in the latter stages. I think it’s difficult to see them sitting permanently in the Paris squad given the calibre of athletes on the team at the moment, but they’re both exceptionally dedicated oarsmen, so it’s all to play for.

2th – Felix Drinkall & Dan Graham

Finally, we have the pair of Drinkall and Graham, with Graham acting as facilitator. These are both Leander guys, but Drinkall is undoubtedly a product of Eton and Oxford. He was a talismanic figure as a junior, stroking the Junior Men’s Eight as a J17 before moving onto the Junior Men’s Four the following year, and had some fantastic results at trials in his first year at Oxford (as well as great U23 results across his whole OUBC stint). He earned a Blue each year at Oxford, but never secured a Boat Race victory – a fact that will likely still sting. Drinkall has moved to Leander in the hope of launching himself into the Caversham scene, though he’s got his work cut out for him this Olympiad. Certainly, he has the technical ability to make a real claim for himself, and his power has stepped on every year, despite not being the biggest guy. It will be interesting to see whether he can fulfil the promise he showed as a junior, or whether the challenge for Paris 2024 simply proves too great.

Summary

If this trial has shown anything, it is that competition for selection on the senior national team will be absolutely ferocious for the next few years. There are a wealth of highly motivated, incredibly talented athletes here – both youngsters and veterans of the team – who will all be desperate to prove, or continue to prove, themselves to the selection committee and coaching team at Caversham. With some notable athletes sitting this trial out, including Charlie Elwes, Sam Nunn and Lenny Jenkins, each athlete here will be very conscious of the limited seats available and the need to perform every step of the way. After a disappointing Tokyo Olympics, it seems that the next iteration of Team GB shows a huge amount of promise, and selection is off to a fighting start.

Five Man

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