Erica Bodman pictured at the replacement event for the postponed second Great Britain rowing trials. (0894189)
ERICA BODMAN accepts she must improve her performance despite beating some top rowers at a replacement event for the postponed second Great Britain rowing trials.
The former high-jumper finished second best under-23 at the event, a 4km invitation-only time trial on the Redgrave and Pinsent rowing lake in Caversham, Reading, which replaced the planned event at Boston.
The Guernseywoman was pleased to place second best in her age group after the return of several athletes who had been exempt from the October trials due to the European championships in September.
Most notably, she fought off stiff competition from Michelle Vezie and Monica Relph, who were both in the eight that won gold at the U-23 World Championships this summer.
Despite being pleased with her under-23 ranking, her overall 23rd position disappointed her.
‘I need to be higher up the senior rankings if I’m going to make an impact after I leave the under-23s next summer. I didn’t have a particularly good row so I know there’s much more to come.’
Bodman is currently in her last year of the under-23s and rows for Minerva Bath Rowing Club.
Eighteen months ago she was identified by the GB Rowing Team’s Start Programme, which is funded by UK Sport.
The programme has a remit to identify and develop talented individuals with the potential to represent Great Britain at Olympic level.
She has also been training at the University of Bath, however, she has recently discovered that her time in Bath is limited due to her coach Paul Stannard being promoted to work with the senior men’s squad in Reading.
Bodman will continue to train in Bath while Stannard sees his athletes through the February GB trials but after that she and the other World Class Start girls from Bath will make the move to Henley and then join the Reading World Class Start Centre to be closer to the heart of GB rowing.
In the new year, Bodman has been invited on the GB
U-23 winter training camp in Nantes, France, something she is looking forward to greatly.
‘I’m really excited about the camp because it is a great opportunity to train with lots of the other under-23 girls who I will be competing with and against next summer.
‘I’m just hoping that the weather warms up a little as the river is currently frozen and last year we had to endure a lot of 20km ergs as the river was solid for our entire time there.’
The camp is being held from 3 to 13 January.
Article posted on 29th December, 2009 - 2.30pm
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