Sydney University Boat Club (SUBC’s) will be represented by four oarsmen and a coach at the 2012 Under 23 and Junior World Championships.
Ryan Edwards and Sydney University Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holder Sasha Belonogoff (B.App.Sci – Ex.Sp.Sci) have been selected in the Men’s Under 23 Quad, along with Benjamin Morley (Grammarians RC/QAS) and Jay Ditmarsch (Mosman RC/NSWIS).
The quad will be coached by SUBC’s Mark Prater.
Fellow Sydney University (EAP) scholarship holder Will Raven (Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Science) has been selected as coxswain in the Men’s Under 23 Coxed Four, along with Scott Laidler (Dutton Park RC/QAS), Scott Woodward (Sydney RC/NSWIS), Aaron Wright (Mosman RC/NSWIS) and George Ellis (Melbourne University BC).
And Frank Gourlas has been selected as coxswain of the Australian Men’s Junior Four to contest the Junior World Championships.
The Under 23 World Championships will be held at Trakai, Lithuania, from 11-15 July, while the Junior World Championships will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 15-19 August.
Meanwhile, Sydney University’s Sarah Cook has been selected in the Australian women’s eight crew that will attempt to qualify for the 2012 London Olympic Games next month at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland from 20-23 May.
A squad of 11 athletes had been originally named after the 2012 Rowing Australia National Selection Trials in March, and following two more weeks of training and trialling, the final crew was selected.
Coxed by 2008 Beijing Olympian Lizzy Patrick (Victoria), the crew includes Phoebe Stanley (Victoria), Hannah Vermeersch (Western Australia), Alexandra Hagan (Western Australia), Sally Kehoe (Queensland), Renee Chatterton (South Australia), Tess Gerrand (NSW), Sarah Cook (NSW) and Robyn Selby Smith (Victoria).
The crew boasts a good mix of youth and experience with Kehoe, formerly with Sydney University, and Cook both having Olympic experience from the Beijing Games.
