While we experience a severe Winter chill our Sydney Uni reps in the Australian Rowing team are certainly not being left out in the cold when it comes to winning medals at the recent World Cup Rowing events in Europe.
While momentum builds to the World Rowing Championships at Lake Aiguebelette , France, 31 August – 6 September, 2015, our National Rowing Team has competed at World Cup events in Varese , Italy and Lucerne , Switzerland.
An absorbing and exhilarating final day of racing at Lucerne last Sunday saw Australian’s snare two gold, two silver and one bronze medal. Starring was Sally Kehoe, from Sydney University Rowing Club, who paired with Olympia Aldersey in the Women’s Double Scull and came ever so close being pipped by the fast-finishing New Zealand crew in a gripping final. The Aussie pair had controlled the race up until the last 100 metres and look in great form. Sally is a two-time Olympian having represented Australia at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games.
Post-race, Kehoe commented, “We are happy with the result. We did a good step-up from Varese where we finished in fifth. We are looking forward to improving over the next few weeks, we’ll try to get on top of this very tight field.”
The Men’s Double Scull crew of Alexander Belonogoff, Sydney Uni, and James McRae were up against the World Champion Croatian Sinkovic brothers and had to settle for bronze after an epic struggle with the German boat for the silver medal.
Post-race, Belonogoff said, “It was a good race for us, we are now used to the time zone and feel fresher. We just need to be a bit stronger and maybe we can stay with the Croatians.”
Cameron Girdlestone, Sydney Uni, also featured on finals day in the Men’s Quadruple Scull, finishing a creditable sixth after one of their crew had to be replaced at the last minute due to an injury.
The Men’s Coxless Pair is an all Sydney Uni affair with Jack Hargreaves and Nicholas Wheatley being coached by our own Mark Prater. These young champions were up against some World leading opponents in Sunday’s A-Final but still managed a gallant fifth and now head to Plovdiv, Bulgaria for their main assignment, the Under 23 World Rowing Championships. Hargreaves and Wheatley picked up a bronze medal in the previous World Cup event, late June, in Varese, Italy.
The Australian Men’s Coxed Eight finished a fighting fifth in it’s final at Lucerne. This crew is super-charged with Sydney Uni rowers Fergus Pragnall, Matthew Ryan and Nicholas Purnell.
Closer to home at the Trans-Tasman Regatta, Sydney University Boat Club claimed a win in the 2,000m Mens 8+, in a time of 6:02.17, with interesting tactics from both coxswains, while the margin between NZ W8+ and the SUWRC W8+ was 15.7secs.
Congratulations to all our University of Sydney 2015 Australian Rowing team representatives and we wish you all the very best and more for success at the upcoming U23 and Open World Rowing Championships.
