Graham Croker
Sydney University Boat Club provided five of the NSW crew and the cox that took out the King’s Cup at the 2010 National Rowing Championships at Lake Nagambie, Victoria, on Sunday.
SUBC’s Nick Hudson, Matthew Ryan, Fergus Pragnell, Nick Purnell, Sam Loch, Nick Hudson and cox – Toby Lister, crewed with Dominic Grimm, James Chapman, and Daniel Noonan win a third consecutive King’s Cup.
The New South Welshmen led from the start and crossed the line in 5min 27.95sec ahead of Victoria and South Australia.
“We started so well and just kept driving away and driving away,” Beijing Olympian James Chapman said.
“Once you start to get a little bit of a lead you get a lot of confidence out of that.”
Victoria matched NSW through the first 500m before Lister lifted the rating and the men in light blue edged ahead.
The Queen’s Cup for the interstate women’s eight was won by Victoria, with Queensland and Western Australia filling the minor placings.
The cups were presented by the Australian Governor-General, Quentin Bryce.
Sydney University’s Sasha Belonogoff was one of the stars of the 2010 nationals. Belonogoff entered four events and came away with four gold medals – in the Under 23 single scull, the Under 23 double scull (with Cam Girdlestone), the open men’s quad with David Kelly (WA), Nick Hudson (SUBC) and Dan Noonan (Mosman), and the men’s eight (SUBC).
The Sydney University eight – rowing in lane one – had a ding-dong battle with Melbourne University, on the far side of the course in lane six. Sydney University, the defending champions, were two seconds down at the half-way mark and 0.5sec at the 1500m mark, before they powered home to win by 1.5sec.
Sydney University’s Sally Kehoe also had a brilliant regatta, winning the national open women’s single sculls on Friday and crewing in the winning women’s double and quadruple sculls on Saturday.
Kehoe crewed with Kerry Hore (Tasmania), Sarah Cook (ACT) and Kim Crow (Victoria) to win the quad scull final by 12.79 seconds, and then teamed with Crow to win the women’s double title.
Kehoe claimed back-to-back national single sculls championship wins when she defeated Hore and Pippa Savage in testing conditions.
“It’s been a great week and I was pleased with how some little adjustments I’ve been working on in training stood up in competition,” Kehoe said. “I’m looking forward now to the national selection trials next month.”
“As far as competition goes that is the most important regatta of the year for us. That is where you get the chance to be chosen for Australia to compete at the world championships later this year and that’s the one everyone wants to be competing at their best in.”
2010 Nationals Day 5 Results.pdf
2010 Nationals Day 6 Results.pdf
