Breaking the Mould.

The GB Heavyweight Men’s team are in the middle of their build up to the World Championships in Gifu, Japan. They have just returned from 3 weeks Altitude training, were back in the UK for 2 weeks before they left for the Championships in Japan. I caught up with the team in Dorney just before they left for Gifu and had a chat with the men’s quad, Matt Wells, Steve Rowbotham, Alan Campbell and Matt Langridge.

Personally I have only been to Altitude once at this time of year when I was preparing for the 1998 World Championships. The lake is located in the shadow of Mt Pizbuin at an altitude of just over 2000m above sea level.

There is not much around other than a tourist shop and restaurant where Austrian and German bikers gather at to compare specs and wonder why the crazy British are going round and round in circles on a near freezing lake.

For the athlete the training camp will either make you or break you. It is intense mentally and physically and there is no escape. Accommodation is basic, in ex-military barracks. If you are lucky you will get a single room. Otherwise it is sharing in what can only be described as a single room!

But the athletes are not there for comfort or frills. It is total focus on preparing for the Championships. There are no distractions. For the Men’s Quad it is the ideal training ground off the back of their successful season.

Coach Tim Foster is realistic about the development of the crew this season: “From the outside you would look at Lucerne as a big step, but from inside it was a natural step that we knew we wanted and it was nice that we did actually make it. People are starting to notice the potential in British Sculling now.”



How was the altitude training camp?

Matt W: For the first time ever it was really enjoyable. A good 3 weeks of solid training. I really enjoyed it. With a bigger team it is quite fun.

Are you still staying in the wooden huts?

Matt L: Yes!

Is there still a big rush to get the best room?

Alan: No there is now a pecking order. The 4- all got single rooms, and we have to share.

Surely the coaches have some nice rooms?

Tim: No the coaches are in another hut (sigh of relief)!

What did you get up to in your spare time when you weren’t training?

Matt W: There is a field outside the huts that we stayed in with some horses. We spent a lot of time befriending them on the way to and from breakfast. There was a small rather round horse that we affectionately christened Pete Wells, after my brother!!

Matt L: We are also getting the hang of various Playstation 2 games, and watching loads of DVD’s

Steve: I find that up here you have to amuse yourself - read books, watch DVD’s etc. It is not like training camps in Seville where everything is on your doorstep and you can pop into town for a coffee, or to unwind.

Alan: You don’t have to worry too much about filling up your spare time. We are training so hard that most of it is taken up sleeping or preparing for the next session, but I have to admit that without DVD’s it would get a bit tedious!.

I have only been to Silvretta once, in the days before DVD’s became as portable as they are now. I remember that someone brought out a Satellite dish from home and we spent the best part of the first day positioning it.

Tim: Ahh yes, the old days! We would be sitting there watching the cricket or a movie and the reception would go. We would take a look out of the window to see a cow scratching itself on our aerial in the field. Retuning the dish got quite tedious!

What were the training conditions like? I remember the weather could change very quickly but most of the time it was cold and wet.

Matt L: The first week was quite cold and wet, the second a bit of sun, and the third was again quite cold and wet but windy as well!

Alan: In the third week we had to rearrange the sessions a bit because before the sun came up there was a thick fog across the lake. It is only 2k long by about 500m wide and can get very dangerous if you stray off course. We looked forward to early morning ergos instead!

What about nutrition? Do you find that the altitude affects you at all are you eating more? Does it put you off food?

Matt L: You are training so hard that you naturally want to eat so much of it. We actually have to be careful that we don’t loose too much weight. Hydration is very important. Much of the time we would use Isotonic drinks to speed up the body’s re-hydration.

I used to find that it was very difficult to physically eat enough to get the required nutritional intake..

Matt L: I find that as long as I keep an eye on how much I have eaten it is not too bad. As a crew we make quite an effort to eat at the right times, straight after training etc, and you will always find a stash of emergency food in any athlete’s room.

Is nutrition something that you have to be aware of now you are back down at se level?

Matt L: Not at the moment, we are still training quite hard, so we will get in an early breakfast, a second after the first session, followed by lunch, tea and dinner.

Matt W: But it is definitely something that we will keep an eye on as we start to wind down.

How do you find training in the team training camp environment?

Matt L: It is really nice to be competitive now. We train against other crews in the squad most days. When we first started the quad we were miles off the pace, but now we are able to fight for the top percentages.

You had a good result at Lucerne, the best a GB M4x has ever achieved. What did you think from the inside?

Matt W: It was a really exciting race, and we were really pleased with the result. The quad has been building in confidence every race this year. 6th at Eton, 4th at Munich and now Bronze at Lucerne.

Steve: Looking at it on paper we thought we should do well. We knew that that we were a strong crew, but we had to get on with the regatta race by race. In the heat we raced quite well and came second. We were looking forward to stepping on in the rep.

Matt W: There is a lot of pressure in any rep. There are only 2 places available to go through to the final and crews go all out as nobody has anything to loose. In the rep we wanted to dominate. It did not go to plan, but we still won.

Alan: In the final, we found ourselves level with the Russians with 500m to go. In Dorney and Munich we had been rowed through. In the past we have not been able to move up a gear, but this time we took them on and raced the quickest last 500 we have ever done.

Matt L: The Checks and the Estonians were battling it out at the front of the pack and were not holding anything back. The way we are starting to race means that we are now snapping at their heels.

Have you been able to take confidence from the race into your training and build up to the World Championships?

Tim: It is nice to see that the crew has stepped on through the races and regattas, and Lucerne was another small step on. People are starting to notice British sculling. From the outside most people would look at Lucerne as a big step, but from inside it was the natural step that we knew we wanted. It was nice that when it came down to it in the race and the pressure was on, we did actually make the step. It was just another move and progression that we will take forward over the coming weeks and to Japan.

So you are you excited about your prospects at the World Championships?

Alan: We love to race and this hard training period training is a means to an end for us. We are really looking forward to getting back to the racing environment that we love. We have not been a strong nation in sculling in the recent years and we have the momentum behind us to change that.

Matt L: Everyone is waiting for that one breakthrough. It is quite exciting

You go from here next week to the World Championships in Japan. Is there any difference about the lead up to this event?

Alan: We have not had the same preparation this year as other years. Last year, before the Olympics, we went to Aiguebelette, in France, because it was similar weather and conditions. We will not have that kind of preparation this year. However it is not something that is important to us. We train and race at many different venues around the World and have to deal with unexpected situations all the time.

Matt L: At the end of the day it is not something that we will be worrying about. We are still racing the same people over the same distance. We can’t control all of the factors. We just need to do what we do well.

What is the course like at Gifu?
Tim: It is on an estuary of a river and there is a little bit of stream. When the management went out to the course last year there was more stream than there was on the tideway on a spring flood – they had just had a typhoon!! I am just counting up.. I have been to Olympics or World Championships every year for 17 years and I think that this one will definitely be a memorable one. I am sure that they will put on a good show and organise the event well. The racing will be good for us because we are preparing well for it. I am enjoying the fact that we are going to Japan and having the chance to race there.

Editorial by Steve Trapmore