Tom James, the Olympic champion in the coxless four in 2008, returns to Henley Royal Regatta on Friday for the first time in four years as part of the Great Britain four in the Stewards Challenge Cup.
They have been drawn against the Australia B side in the first round and could face Australia A in the final on Sunday. “The Australians have already labelled themselves as our big rivals for the Olympics,” James said. “I don’t think any Australian crew will come over here for a muck-around.”
This will be the first time that the Britain four have crossed swords this season with the Australians, who have added Drew Ginn to their crew. Ginn was a member of the Oarsome Foursome in 1996, the last non-British four to win an Olympic gold, and formed a successful pair with Duncan Free to win the Olympic gold in 2008.
Earlier this year, Ginn said that he was relishing the chance to take the Olympic crown back from the Britain four “on the Poms’ home soil”, a small revenge for losing the Ashes. “He likes trying to wind people up,” James said. “It will be great to race him and see what he and his crew can do.”
James competed in the pair against Ginn and Free at the World Championships in 2006, before moving into the four as a short-term replacement for the injured Alex Partridge at Henley in 2007 and then taking Partridge’s place permanently for the Olympics. He took 2009 off and was injured for all of last season.
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“I feel different coming back here for the first time in four years,” he said. “I feel more of a mature athlete at 27 and confident that I know what I want to do in racing. This four is a new combination and although we won at the Munich World Cup [in May], it wasn’t perfect. We have really pushed on since then.”
Marcus Bateman and Matt Wells, the Great Britain double scull, also face competition from Australia. David Crawshay and Scott Brennan have not raced together since winning the Olympic final three years ago, in which Wells and Steve Rowbotham won the bronze, and have been put in the opposite half of the draw to the British crew.
Bateman and Wells will race a crew from China in the quarter-finals today, while Brennan and Crawshay must get past a United States crew.
Pete Reed and Andrew Triggs Hodge, James’s crew-mates in the Olympic four in Beijing, made a winning start to their campaign in the Silver Goblets, beating a Worcester crew by more than four lengths. They now take on the father-and-son combination of Neil and Stuart West from Walton.
Eton College, the winners of the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup for the past two years, were given a scare in their second-round race by Canford School but won by half a length.
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In one of the best races of the day, in the Wyfold Challenge Cup, Lea fought London Rowing Club C all the way down the course. Lea, the less fancied crew, held a lead of two thirds of a length at Fawley but London pulled back to level by the mile. There was still all to play for in the finishing stretch but Lea suddenly hit the booms and stopped. London won with a verdict of “easily” that did not reflect the race.
University of California, Berkeley, were the day’s fastest crew, breaking records to the Barrier and Fawley in their victory over the University of Groningen, from the Netherlands, in the Temple Challenge Cup.