OLYMPICS: Langridge races in rowing repechage (From Northwich Guardian)

Northwich rower Matthew Langridge targets Olympics final place in Monday's repechage

1:04am Monday 30th July 2012 in Other sport By Andrew Simpson, Senior Sports Writer

GREAT Britain’s men’s eight, including Northwich rower Matthew Langridge, hope to show signs of progress in the repechage today, Monday.

They were runners-up to world champions Germany in Saturday’s heat, but completed the course on Dorney Lake faster than any other boat in the field.

Four from six crews in the repechage will join Germany, plus opening heat victors USA, in Wednesday’s final.

“We’ve got to have a really good race in the rep and then put ourselves in a position to go as fast as we can in the final to challenge the other boats,” said Greg Searle, who sits in the same boat as Langridge.

Great Britain has lost each of its three races with Germany, unbeaten since 2009, this season but only raced with a full-strength crew for the first time at the weekend.

Stroke Constantine Louloudis sat out the entire World Cup series to recover from an injury.

“Without a shadow of a doubt we can close the gap [to Germany],” said cox Phelan Hill.

“After all, Saturday was our first race in this combination.”

Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Poland and Ukraine provide the opposition in today’s race, which starts at 0950.

Read a report of Saturday's heat here  http://bit.ly/LXRSGF