WATER WEEK! Training steps up for our Olympic rowers

1:00pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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WARRINGTON’S two Beijing-bound rowers have stepped up their training on overseas camps after their 2008 Olympic Games selection.

The British Olympic Association confirmed at the end of last week that Richard Egington and Olivia Whitlam will be in the 43-strong line-up for next month’s games in China.

Daresbury’s Whitlam, who will contest the pair event in Beijing, is now with Team GB’s other women and lightweight men on a camp in Germany, while Egington, who will be in the men’s eight boat, is in Austria with the heavyweight oarsmen.

They are the first ever rowers from Warrington to gain Olympic selection but Egington is no mood to celebrate the fact.

He is staying highly focused on the task with a crew that has the ability to be among the Beijing medals.

“I sort of had an idea about my selection, it wasn’t a surprise,” said the former Lymm High School pupil, who started out in the sport with Warrington Rowing Club.

“I’m really pleased but I don’t see the selection confirmation as a milestone, more like another step along the line.

“It’s good to get the official announcement out of the way and move on to the next thing, the camp in Austria, which is where the nitty-gritty starts.”

The 29-year-old, who competes for the Leander Rowing Club and won a world championships bronze medal with the Team GB eight last year, is now four days into the 18-day camp in the Silvretta mountain range where he and his seven crewmates are working on improving the form that led to second, third and then first places in three recent World Cup races.

“It’s a pretty place and is 2,100m up in the Alps, where there’s a big lake,” said Egington.

“The lake is not usually used by rowers but our coach, who used to coach East Germany, found it many years ago and it has worked for him as a training base.

“It’s very quiet and I like that. With the best will in the world, at home it’s quite easy to get distracted but on the camp it’s 24/7 and we don’t have to rush anything or cut any corners.

“It’s a bit like the Rocky film in that it’s not a state-of-the-art facility but it’s good for teamwork from the start as we have to set up a course and put the buoys out.”

Egington and his seven crewmates – Alex Partridge, Tom Stallard, Tom Lucy, Josh West, Alastair Heathcote, Matt Langridge and Colin Smith, as well as cox Acer Nethercott – know there is room for improvement from their World Cup form.

Egington said: “There’s a lot of work still to be done and I just want to keep the momentum going.”

* Read Egington’s Race to the Olympics blog on our website at warringtonguardian.co.uk.