Gloucester rower Tom George wants to deal with unfinished business after being crowned British small-boat champion.

The 28-year-old claimed a dominant victory alongside Ollie Wynne-Griffith in the men’s pair at the GB Rowing Team Trials, a crucial regatta to set the tone for the 2023 season.

Peers at Radley College and then Cambridge University, Wynne-Griffith and George won the 2022 Boat Race together and then took on the world in the British men’s pair.

British Rowing bosses will have the final say but the duo are invested in the pair project and, so sky-high are their standards, they plan to use their World Championship bronze as motivation.

“We’d love to continue as a pair - it’s a case of what the powers that be decide,” said Wynne-Griffith.

“Everyone has dreams, goals, ambitions and ideas but all we can do is get in the boat and make it go faster.

“Last year was a really short project, we were only in the boat for a few months and we spent every race learning lessons - we learned some good lessons and some hard lessons at points.

“That wasn’t the finished article, we both feel there’s more to come with it.”
Heavy favourites coming into the Trials, Wynne-Griffith and George justified their status with a commanding clear-water victory at Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake.

They might not have shown it but both felt the pressure of expectation.

“It has been a really good weekend,” said George.

“Having raced the pair last summer, there was a bit of a target on our backs which was quite stressful actually.

“It was good to navigate it well with three good races, stepping on from each one and there feels like more to come too, which is exciting.”

Wynne-Griffith added: “Everyone wants to get one up on each other in a positive way. We got ourselves a ranking against the rest of the world last year and the team here measure themselves against that.

“Whether we wanted it or not, we have been the guys to beat so it’s pleasing to show that we’re moving on from last year in terms of speed and smoothness in the boat.

“It’s the first time we’ve done three race-length pieces since the Worlds, so it has been a case of dusting off the car to see what’s under there, but it’s a good starting point.

“We’ve worked on some things that we felt were weaknesses last year and we can already see the growth. I don’t know what the next step is but I’m happy to move forward on the basis that we’re getting faster.”

British Rowing is the governing body for the sport and is responsible for the development of rowing in England and the training and selection of rowers to represent Great Britain. The GB Rowing Team is supported by the National Lottery Sports Fund. To find out more, and to follow the team, head to https://www.britishrowing.org/