Rowing, one of Britain’s most successful Olympic sports, has been thrown into turmoil by the belief that internationals are being pressurised to join the squad at Caversham, Berkshire, or risk losing much of their lottery funding.

Two leading Cambridge oarsmen, Kieran West, a member of Britain’s gold medal-winning eight at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and Tom James, an Athens Olympian and this year’s Light Blues president, have challenged the right of the Amateur Rowing Association (ARA) to cut their grants. Cambridge are appealing to the ARA Council on Saturday.

The pair have opted to stay with their university squad and have had their grants cut by more than 50 per cent. Instead of receiving £17,948 in Athlete Personal Awards, West is getting up to £8,250 and James is receiving £6,000 with a possible £3,000 discretionary grant.

Duncan Holland, the chief Cambridge coach, said: “The funding issue is whether it is possible to row for your country and study at the same time. We don’t want this to become a Boat Race issue because it isn’t just a Boat Race issue.”

However, this year, Tom Parker, a member of Oxford’s 2006 winning crew, has opted for the national squad, while Hugo Lee turned down taking a postgraduate course at Oxford to join him.

Steve Royle, Oxford’s director of rowing, said: “It was put to them that if they wanted to have a chance for the Beijing Olympics, they would have to join the national squad.

Both he and Richard Phelps, the Cambridge representative on the ARA, believe that the result will be fewer Britons opting for the Boat Race, which will have more foreigners.

However, David Tanner, the ARA’s international manager, denied that there was a clash between training and education. He wants national squad representatives to continue their education but points out that the Boat Race training programme does not allow oarsmen to attend national squad sessions regularly until after the event.

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