The Sydney University Boat Club (SUBC) will contribute an incredible ten athletes to the Australian rowing squads, after Rowing Australia announced their Australian senior, under-23 and junior rowing teams for 2013.
Following the conclusion of the 2013 National Selection Trials at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith, SUSF Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holders Sasha Belonogoff (Bachelor of Applied Science) and Nick Purnell, as well as team mate Ed de Carvalho, were named as part of a squad of 51 athletes selected in the Australian senior team that will aim to build on the success it achieved at the opening round of the 2013 Samsung World Rowing Cup in Sydney, where the team won four gold, four silver and five bronze medals. Click here for a review of the World Cup held in March.
Purnell, Belonogoff and de Carvalho will now begin preparations for the first World Rowing Championships of the new Olympic and Paralympic cycle in Chungju, Korea from 25 August to 1 September 2013.
The selections on the senior rowing team are complemented by a further six SUBC athletes being selected in the Australian under-23 rowing team that will compete at the Under 23 World Championships in Linz, Austria from 24 July to 28 July 2013. Selected on the team were Hamish Playfair, Peter Koster (Bachelor of Liberal Arts & Science), Nicholas Wheatley, Tom Sacre (Bachelor of Arts), Kit Cunningham-Reid (Bachelor of Science) and Jack Hargreaves. Koster, Sacre, Cunningham-Reid and Hargreaves are SUSF EAP scholarship holders.
SUSF Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holder Alex Purnell (Bachelor Commerce/Arts) was selected in the junior Australian junior rowing team that will compete at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Trakai, Lithuania from 25 August to 1 September 2013.
Sydney Uni Rowing Director Mark Prater was full of praise for his athletes, saying “It is pleasing to have so many athletes selected to row for Australia this year. This is the result of, in some cases, two-three years of hard work on the part of the athletes.”
“The trialling process was long and demanding, which really challenged the athletes and will provide some good lessons for the future international competition. They now have a few months of hard work before heading to either Europe or Korea to compete at the World Championships.”
Prater was also rewarded for his hard work after being named coach of the Australian under 23 men’s quad scull. Fellow Sydney Uni coaches Rick Van Hooydonk (assistant coach for the senior lightweight men’s quad scull) and Alistair Matthews (coach of the junior men’s quad scull) will also take up coaching roles within the national set-up.
