12:10pm Thursday 28th December 2006
WORLD junior rowing champion Tom Lucy is escaping the British winter next week to compete for Great Britain in the Australian Youth Olympics.
The 18-year-old Llangovan powerhouse is teaming up with two of his world champion crew and another GB world finalist to race the coxless four on the Sydney course where Steve Redgrave won his fifth Olympic title in the same boat.
"I can't wait to go there and race where Sir Steve created sporting history," said the former Monmouth School pupil.
"We won the Under-18 world title in Amsterdam in August and it would be amazing to match him on the Australian national course by taking gold.
"We've already been in training camp at the national rowing centre at Caversham and are only taking three days off for Christmas before we fly out on January 5.
"We then have two weeks preparing for the regatta at Penrith, just outside Sydney, before the Games from January 17 to 21."
As well as racing in the four with fellow world champions Lewis Beech and Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, plus world pairs finalist Mohammed Sbihi, 6ft 4ins Lucy will be racing in the pair and the eight.
More than 2,200 competitors from 23 nations are competing in 16 sports at the five-day Youth Olympics, which are for under-19s and were founded by the Australian Olympic Committee as part of their legacy from the 2000 Sydney Games.
"It's going to be amazing," added Lucy. "It's a real bonus to be invited to compete at such a prestigious event in Australia in the middle of our winter.
"I've never been Down Under and we're really excited about the prospect of racing top rowing nations like the Aussies, China and New Zealand."
Lucy, currently studying geography at Oxford Brookes University, warmed up for Australia by finishing 12th out of 27 pairs at the British 5km senior rowing trials at Boston last week.
Fellow Old Monmothian Rob Hollis, from Dingestow, went even better by coming ninth, but will know that after finishing sixth in the final trials last April and then being passed over for selection, that nothing is guaranteed regarding the British team.
Lucy said of his 12th-place finish with Matt Tucker in 17 m 2secs: "It's not too bad a result at this stage of the winter season and means I should get invited to the February trial, but I'll need to step up if I want to make the senior team for the 2007 worlds in Munich.
"That's very much my aim, to make the senior worlds, and hopefully going to Australia will help with that.
"This time we didn't spend much time in the pair and hadn't really gelled technically, while the full-time GB boys had been off to Spain training at altitude, which is a definite advantage.
"Next time we'll need to make sure we're better prepared if we're going to push into the reckoning for selection."
Hollis, a world under-23 silver medallist in 2004, raced home 10 seconds ahead of Lucy and partner Martin Haymes, while world coxless four champions Peter Reed and Andy Hodge were top dogs in 16.06.
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