Richard Egington’s suitcase life continues

9:00am Friday 18th July 2008

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BEIJING-bound Richard Egington’s suitcase lifestyle as an Olympian rower continues this week.

His 18-day training camp in Austria ends today, Friday, but from Monday he will spend seven days at a hotel in Caversham, near Reading, before jetting out to China for his first shot at Olympic glory with Team GB.

Egington sees the world from rowing boats as he took part in World Cup races in Poland, Switzerland and Germany leading up to his Olympic selection last month.

Egington said: “Caversham, where we train, is our final holding camp.

“It’s only down the road from where I’m living in Henley but staying in the hotel continues our training camp atmosphere, which is important.

“From there, we’ll be heading straight out to China at the end of the month.”

Egington and the fellow Team GB rowers will have an important 10 days of preparation time in China before the rowing action starts on August 9.

“It takes a bit of time to get used to the time shift,” said Egington.

“We’ll be training on the Olympic rowing course and we’ll be staying in a hotel really close to the course, rather than the Olympic village.

“Rowing teams have generally done that because it can be too easy to become distracted and waste quite a bit of energy at the village.

“It might sound a bit boring staying at a hotel but we’re there to compete and it is better for us to focus on what we’re there for.”