THREE local rowers have been selected in the Great Britain squad for this year’s World Championships.
Former Abbey Gate College and Bishop Heber High School student Vicky Thornley and King’s School, Chester, graduates Olivia Whitlam and Chris Bartley will form part of the 61-strong squad that heads to New Zealand next month.
The squad has been told to treat the event as the start of their Olympic-qualifying season. Hosts Britain will need to quality its boat for the London 2012 Games through next year’s World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, which takes place just nine months after this year’s showpiece.
Thornley, 22, from Holt, and 25-year-old Whitlam, from Warrington, will take their place in the women’s eight boat while Bartley, 26, from Farndon, will compete in Team GB’s all-conquering men’s lightweight four.
A veteran Royal Chester Rowing Club crew took to the river to celebrate the 80th birthday of bowman Ken Worden and the 29th anniversary of their first international race.
Ken, who has returned to rowing after a life-threatening brush with cancer, was joined in the boat by John Bigland, David Evans, David Parker and Liz Evans.
The crew were the first from the North West to compete in the World Masters Championships, winning bronze medals in the coxed fours at the 1981 event in Heidelberg, Germany.
