Rower Marburg in surprise switch

JAMES MARBURG will row in the men's eight at the World Rowing Championships in New Zealand on October 31-November 7.In a surprise selection, Ballarat's Marburg and his crewmates from the four which collected silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have been put in the eight in a bid to freshen them up for a tilt at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Francis Hegerty, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, Matt Ryan and Marburg were one of the surprise packets of the rowing in Beijing.Australia's selectors have rolled the dice and made the eight the men's priority sweep-oar boat following eye-raising World Cup results by emerging rowers in the European summer. Joshua Dunkley Smith, Nicholas Purnell, Sam Loch and Will Lockwood combined to win the men's four at World Cup (2) before moving into the men's eight to take silver at World Cup (3). The performances were enough for Rowing Australia to keep that four together and match them with the Olympic quartet, which went within inches of pulling off rowing's biggest boilover at Beijing. Hegerty, McKenzie-McHarg, Marburg and Ryan went to China as a bunch of ``rejects'' after they missed out on the then priority eights boat, but led the powerful British boat until the last 50 metres in the Olympic final. While the Beijing quartet continued their impressive results last year with silver at the world titles, they were off the boil in this season's World Cup regattas. McKenzie-McHarg felt the switch would do the Beijing foursome the world of good after admitting they became stale midway through a long four-year Olympic cycle. ''I think we're all pretty excited about the opportunity to row in the eights - it gives us the opportunity to grab hold of a new challenge,'' he told AAP. ''It's a real long season (in 2010) and mixing things up a bit gets us a lot more excited.'' The Victorian denied the Beijing four was on the scrapheap, but rated the existing current eight the best he had been involved with, and could see the new crew potentially sticking together through to London. ''I think we have plenty of options with the four being successful and the eight being successful,'' he said. The 50-strong squad also features Derrinallum and former Ballarat Head of the Lake oarswoman Sarah Heard in the women's eight.Former Ballarat rower and now Tasmanian-based Anthony Edwards continues his distinguished in the lightweight fours,