Sydney University Boat Club members won a gold medal, four silver medals and a bronze at the World Rowing Cup held at Varese, Italy, at the weekend.
Georgie Gleeson won a gold medal in the Women’s 8!
Tara Rigney finished second in the Women’s Single Sculls, while Jackson Kench was a member of the Australian men’s eight and Alex Purnell OAM and Jack Hargreaves OAM were members of the Men’s Four which also finished second in their respective finals. Jack O’Brien also pulled off a bronze medal in the Men’s pair.
Over 300 crews, including 650 rowers from 42 nations, competed at the regatta.
Tara won Heat 4 in the women’s Single Sculls to earn a berth in the Semi-Final where she finished second to the USA’s Kohler Lane. That earnt her a berth in the A Final where German’s Alexander Foester claimed gold in 07:20.31 from Rigney (07:22.40) and Kara Kohler (07:22.75).
The Australian Men’s Four won their heat in 05:46.50 to move into the A Semi-Final where they finished second (05:47.12) to Great Britain (05:45.30), with Italy (05:50.93) claiming third berth. That took them to the A Final where Great Britain (05:42.24) just held on to win gold from Australia (05:43.19) with the USA claiming bronze in 05:48.91.
The Australian Four crew included Alexander Purnell (bow), Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alexander Hill.
Australia finished second to Great Britain in the Men’s Preliminary Eight to claim a berth in the final. But the British crew proved too strong in the decider, winning by almost three seconds from Australia, with Germany claiming the bronze medal.
The Australian eight included Joshua Hicks (bow), Patrick Holt, Timothy Masters, James Daniel Robertson, Simon Keenan, Benjamin Canham, Angus Widdicombe, Sydney University’s Jackson Kench and Kendall Brodie.
Sydney University Boat Club has 13 members in the recently announced 2023 Senior Australian Rowing team.
They include Rigney in the women’s single scull, Rowena Meredith in the women’s quad scull, Kathryn Rowan in the women’s sculling squad, Georgie Gleeson in the women’s coxed eight squad, including the women’s pair and the women’s four, and Lucy Coleman in the lightweight women’s double scull (with Anneka Reardon from the ANU Boat Club).
The men’s crews include Dave Bartholot in the double scull, with Caleb Antill from the ANU Boat Club; Campbell Watts in the quad scull; Jack Hargraeves OAM and Alexander Purnell OAM in the Men’s Coxless Four, along with Alexander Hill OAM (Adelaide Rowing Club) and Spencer Turrin OAM (Sydney Rowing Club), and Jackson Kench, Jack O’Brien and Will O’Shannessy in the coxed eight and men’s pair squad.
SUBC also had two female rowers and one male in the 2023 Windermere Cup team that competed at the recent Windermere Cup in Seattle, USA.
Jaime Ford and Eleanor Price were in the 11-member women’s squad with Marcus Birthings in the men’s squad.
Rowing Australia has also announced the Under 21 team to compete at the Lake Karapiro Regatta in New Zealand from July 27-29. For a second time, the Australian and New Zealand teams will also be joined by a team from Canada.
The event provides invaluable high-level international competition and opportunities for athletes between the World Rowing Championships age categories of Under 19 and Under 23.
The women’s squad includes SUBC’s Sophia Wightman and Zoe Bond in sculling and Stefanie Preller and coxswain Elizabeth Bolster in the sweep crew.
