PRINCETON, N.J. - With the Olympic and Under23 World Championship teams selected and set for competition, the attention next week shifts to the final two national team squads left to be named.
Beginning Monday morning on Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J., racing in both the 2012 Junior World Championship Trials and the 2012 Non-Olympic Senior World Championship Trials gets underway.
Racing in the senior event will feature competition in the men's pair with coxswain, lightweight men's and women's singles, lightweight men's pair, lightweight men's and women's quadruple sculls and the lightweight men's eight.
In the junior trials, racing will be held in the men's and women's junior pair, men's and women's junior double sculls, and the men's and women's junior single sculls. Winners of their respective events will be named to the teams that will compete in the World Rowing Senior and Junior Championships August 14-19, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The combined events are run together during an Olympic year to accommodate senior boat classes not included in the Olympic program.
Racing in the men's and women's lightweight senior singles has some familiar USRowing athletes including Cambridge Boat Club's Andrew Campbell (New Canaan, Con.), who finished fourth in the event at the 2011 Word Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Joining Campbell on the line are eight other entries including two-time Olympian Greg Ruckman (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Craftsbury Rowing Center's John Graves (Cincinnati, Ohio), who finished 11th in the lightweight men's single at the 2010 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
In the lightweight women's event seven scullers, including Ursula Grobler (Pretoria, South Africa) and Katherine Robinson (Everett, Wash.), will attempt to win the event along with
Meghan Sarbanis (Hampstead, N.H.). Sarbanis finished fourth in the 2009 World Rowing Championships while Grobler finished fourth in 2011. Robinson recently won the 2012 USRowing National Championships in the event and was in the lightweight women's quad that won bronze in Slovenia.
Hillary Saeger (Dedham, Mass.) and Lindsey Hochman (Seattle, Wash.) were also in the 2011 bronze medal quad and will compete in the lightweight quad at senior trials in the composite entry from Pocock Rowing Center, Riverside Boat Club and the USRowing Training Center - Oklahoma City.
Two men's pairs with coxswain from the Oklahoma City training center will go head-to-head for a spot on the senior team, including the crews of Justin Stangel (Madison, Wis.), Blaise Didier (San Francisco, Calif.) and coxswain Stephen Young (Tampa, Fla.) and Ryan Shelton (Wrightwood, Calif.), Max Goff (Sun Prairie, Wis.) and coxswain Marcus McElhenney (Landsdowne, Pa.).
The two boats recently raced in the 2012 USRowing National Championships with Stangel, Didier and Young winning the gold medal. Didier and McElhenney won gold in the eight at the 2011 Pan American Games and Didier finished sixth in the pair with coxswain at the 2011 World Rowing Championships. Stangel finished ninth in the pair in Slovenia.
Four USRowing Training Center - Oklahoma City athletes will be racing in the lightweight men's pair including 2008 Olympian Will Daly (Vail Colo.) who will row with Greg Flood (Tulsa, Okla.). Daly finished 11th in the lightweight four at the 2008 Olympic Games and 13th in the boat at the 2011 World Rowing Championships. Flood finished ninth in the lightweight four at the 2011 World Rowing Under 23 Championships.
Racing in the combined events will begin Monday morning, with finals scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
For event information and schedule in the 2012 Non-Olympic Senior World Championship Trials, visit: http://www.usrowing.org/NationalTeams/OlympicSeniorNationalTeam/SrNTSelectionEvents/2012SenWCTrials.aspx
For event information and schedule for the 2012 Junior World Championship Trials, visit: http://www.usrowing.org/NationalTeams/JuniorNationalTeam/JrNTSelectionEvents/2012JrWCTrials.aspx
Live streaming of the finals can be seen at: http://www.ustream.tv/usrowing
Following the event, video clips can be purchased at http://www.usrowing.org/Multimedia/VideoDownloads.aspx.??
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