GBRT November Trials 2024 – Men’s Senior Preview

It hasn’t yet been 100 days since the end of the Paris Olympic Games, but the ruthless nature of sport is that we always look ahead. For British rowers, the first selection event of the Los Angeles Olympiad comes this weekend in Boston, Lincolnshire, as hopefuls set a time on the rowing machines before taking on the 5km time trial course on Sunday. Those who raced in Paris are exempt from this trial, but we will be treated to a showing by the best of the rest in this event. For the first round of trials this year, the majority of the top athletes will be competing in the single as British Rowing has required anyone receiving funding from a number of sources to compete in the boat class, forcing those more comfortable sweeping to try their hand in the single scull.

George Bourne

George Bourne was very unlucky not to be racing in Paris this summer. A silver medallist at the World Rowing Championships in 2022, he was part of the crew that qualified for Paris twelve months later; however, with the return of Graeme Thomas from injury, Bourne was switched across into the single scull, a boat class that GB had not yet qualified for the Games. Sent through the challenge of the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta, he reached four A-finals against world-class competition but failed to gain the all-important top-two finish in Lucerne, so he was left out of the Paris squad. This season, the Durham graduate has enrolled at Cambridge University. The Boat Race will be the focus, but he will also be hoping for a strong performance here to prove his place in LA to the selectors should not be in doubt.

Cedol Dafydd

One of the shining stars to emerge from Dan Harris’ old GB start programme with the University of Bath, Cedol Dafydd has established himself as one of the ones to watch for the coming cycle. He and his partner Jamie Gare took the world by storm during the 2023 season, as Dafydd took home three BUCS medals as well as winning on the continent at Duisberg and Holland Beker. Last season, the two moved to Leander Club as they aimed for national team vests, and they thrived, winning The Double Sculls Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta before Dafydd would make his World Rowing debut in the double at the Poznan World Rowing Cup, finishing fourth in a strong field. For this year, he will enter the year with higher expectations but if he continues on the solid trajectory he has shown over the last few years, I would expect him to thrive at Caversham and solidify himself within the GB setup.

Stephen Hughes

Dafydd’s partner in Poznan, Stephen Hughes, is the only member of this summer’s U23 men’s sculling squad to move up to the senior ranks this year. Twice an age group international, Hughes has been a stalwart in Leander Club Pink since he was a junior, winning The Fawley Challenge Cup for the Pink Palace in 2019 and going on to win The Queen Mother Challenge Cup this year. Internationally, the results have been more hit-and-miss, but he will be expecting to make a quick step up to the senior team after impressing in Poznan. A finish in and among the best in the country would go a long way to securing a spot at Caversham for the season.

Rory Harris

After winning a bronze medal with the project Paris group at the third World Rowing Cup in 2021, Rory Harris was tipped to step up to the elite group over the last cycle. This did not quite work out, but he performed well across the trials process, finishing in the top ten of every round in this cycle. Domestically, he continued to thrive, winning four events at Henley Royal Regatta across the last four years with Leander Club. He will hope that with the changes brought by a new Olympic cycle, there will be an opportunity to step up and become a mainstay within the team going forward.

Tobias Schroder

The partner of Harris in Poznan this spring, Tobias Schroder is a three-time Oxford Blue and was twice an U23 world champion in sweep boats but has transitioned well into a sculler following his graduation from Leander Club. Rising quickly at the Pink Palace, his first-ever race in a quad ended in the Headship at Fours Head in 2022 after finishing third at the November trials that year. Since then, he has been in and around the national team, racing in development boats and acting as a spare intermittently over the last two years. With a history of excellent results on the Boston course, he may be one to look out for at the front of the field on Sunday as he seeks to earn a vest in a priority boat this season. 

Oliver Costley

A five-time Henley Royal Regatta champion, Oliver Costley has had tremendous success in quads. The former Claires Court School and Newcastle University standout has moved back down south to train with Leander since his graduation in 2020 and has won The Prince of Wales Challenge Cup in each season since. He has also retained a consistent presence near the front of proceedings in the single. While at Leander, there have been five sets of trials held at Boston, and in each one, he has finished in the top ten, the most recent of which, in February of this year, Costley finished in fourth – his best showing to date. With no Olympic returners to compete against, Costley will be hoping to continue his fine form over the course and at least match that performance this time.

Cameron Buchan

Cam Buchan has become an internet sensation by documenting his journey through the sport in the seven years since his last GB vest. Once a sweep specialist, he has come to thrive in the single, taking on the best that the domestic scene offers. Last season, Buchan won both days at the Metropolitan Regatta alongside Marlow Regatta three weeks later – prequalifying him for Henley Royal Regatta. However, last season was rubberstamped not by these results but by a World Rowing Championship title won on the seas; he was part of the GB crew who won in the coastal mixed quad at the 2024 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals – his first national team appearance since 2017. Back in classic rowing, he will be hoping to resume his successes from the summer, but his history at Boston has not been brilliant.

Sam Nunn

Of the sweep athletes racing this weekend, Sam Nunn was likely the closest to making the trip to Paris. The Oxford Brookes athlete was a part of the British four who won the senior World Rowing Championships in 2022, the first in eight years for a nation that once dominated the event. However, since then, he has slipped out of the squad. Over the last two years, he has been a part of a ‘shadow four’ who have put pressure on the top athletes at Caversham as well as picking up good results on the world stage. This year, he remained with the national team until the crews and reserves were announced before joining the Brookes project that would end in him lifting the The Grand Challenge Cup. For this weekend, he will be racing in the single and is not a notable sculler, but the London Youth Rowing alum has the power and experience to shake it up with the best of them.

Calvin Tarczy

Of all the sweep-focused athletes in the field, few have as strong a sculling history as Calvin Tarczy. A member of the legendary 2017-18 St Paul’s School eight who won the quadruple, he was part of the quad that won the junior title at Fours Head as well as setting the fastest overall time at Scullers’ Head in 2017. Since leaving St Paul’s, he spent four years in Harvard and regularly appeared with the national team, bringing his total World Rowing Championship vests to four across U23 and U19 levels. Back in the UK since the start of last season, he has been rowing with Leander, winning The Visitors’ Challenge Cup, one of just four events they won at Henley Royal Regatta this year. In the single this weekend, he hopes to rekindle the speed shown seven years ago and demonstrate that he can hold his own against specialist scullers.

Daniel Graham

Another member of the 2023 ‘shadow four’ that finished fourth in Lucerne, Dan Graham is rare among the project LA group in that he has rather limited age-group World Rowing Championship experience; he has only been selected in the U23 four from which he withdrew after the heats for medical reasons. However, he is not short of international experience. In addition to finishing fourth in Lucerne in 2023, he won bronze as part of a GB development boat at the World Rowing Cup regatta this summer in Poznan. The Leander-based athlete had a successful domestic season this spring, setting a new course record at the Head of the River Race, before winning the April trials in a pair. Stepping into the sculling boats may prove a challenge, but with most of the summer to prepare, Graham should be well-positioned to give a good accounting of himself 

Douwe de Graaf

The trajectory of Douwe de Graaf’s career has been somewhat similar to that of Tarczy. Both were members of the legendary St Paul’s eight who would go on to row and study at Harvard and the two of them were even in the same crews as they won their four age-group world titles. However, since their return, their paths have diverged a little. De Graaf rowed in a pair with Dan Graham during the trials process last year, where they would win in February and April, leading to their selection in the crew for Poznan. This year, de Graaf has enrolled at Cambidge with ambitions for The Boat Race and succeeded in his first outing, stroking the crew to victory at the Head of the Charles. Racing in a single will be a more novel experience for de Graaf as he was not a regular fixture at Scullers’ Head as a junior, but I would be surprised if he were unable to put together a performance that earns him an invite to join the Caversham group.

Jake Wincomb

There are few rowers more accomplished than Jake Wincomb before their 23^rd birthday. Three gold medals at the U23 World Rowing Championships and four wins in four different events at Henley Royal Regatta with Oxford Brookes is an enviable combination. He is one of just three rowers from the sweep team in St Catharine’s to be on the start line this weekend, and he will be looking for a big performance in his first year as a senior. Given that information on who receives funding is not public, it is unclear if Wincomb (or any others mentioned) will compete in the pair or the single. If it is the former, I would expect a combination of Wincomb and Fergus Woolnough to be the class of the field. But if it is the latter, I wouldn’t count Wimcomb out. A junior rower at Claires Court School, he reached a Henley Royal Regatta semifinal and won a medal at the National Schools’ Regatta in the quad, so he clearly has the pedigree to succeed in a sculling boat.

Sam Bannister

While many of the athletes mentioned above fit neatly into the sweep or scull athlete category, Sam Bannister bucks this trend. Listed as an athlete from  Leander Club and Oxford Brookes University, the former swimmer began his rowing career in earnest at Cardiff University, where he made waves in his single, qualifying for The Diamond Challenge Sculls in 2018. He then joined Brookes, establishing himself as a top-class sweep athlete, winning The Temple Challenge Cup in his first year. However, he has not strayed too far away from his sculling routes; in the February 2023 trials, he raced in the single, placing ninth, but competed in the pair in all other trials since moving to Brookes. Dropped back into the single this autumn, it will be interesting to see if his background in sculling proves a significant advantage over other sweep-focused athletes.

Prediction

A race in singles in November is naturally challenging to predict, as so much of the choice is on reputation, and George Bourne has the best reputation in a single scull by some margin. With a training programme built to peak in March, he will likely be sharper than much of his opposition – pointing to a likely victory in Boston this weekend.

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