Bartholot Wins National Rowing Championship Title

NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) athlete David Bartholot (SUBC), 28, overturned his loss to Australian Double Scull partner and fellow NSWIS athlete Marcus Della Marta (SUBC) in Wednesday’s semi-final the best way possible – by winning the final. 

Bartholot, the NSW Champion, won in 6:58.46, beating Della Marta by 2.38s. In third was Campbell Watts (SUBC) at 3.01s to make it a Sydney University clean sweep. Defending Australian Champion Caleb Antill (ANU-ACT) finished fourth at 6.56s. 

Bartholot’s race was excellently executed, with him pushing through as planned from third place at 500m to take the lead from the fast-starting Della Marta after 1500m. 

“I was really happy to be able to get the win today,” Bartholot said. “In the semi I was really trying to get through. I was trying to save a bit for today. In the past I’ve worn myself out too early in the regatta so, I was trying to time it to have my best Single Scull race today.”  

David Bartholot

Bartholot did find his “best” when it mattered, in a race that unfolded as he had planned.  

“Marcus is really fast out from the start. I knew I could probably ‘walk’ past him through the middle. 

“So, I was really just trying to not let Marcus get too far ahead of me; and trying to make a move through the middle of the race, which is what happened.” 

In the Open Men’s Coxless Pair Simon Keenan and NSWIS athlete Patty Holt raced brilliantly to show why they have been selected by Rowing Australia as the Australian Coxless Pair for the ART’s international campaign. 

Keenan (MUBC) and Holt (UTS-Haberfield) led all the way to win in 6:30.08s and 7.09s ahead of second placed Jackson Kench (SUBC) and Rohan Lavery (MUBC), who are the ART men’s reserves, and 14.61s clear of Charlie Batrouney and Hamish Wynn-Pope (MUBC) in third. 

How did Keenan and Holt duo clearly handle the expectation in them as the Australian pair?  

“We went out, and just want to be really process oriented. We’ve been doing ‘Ks’ [kilometres] down the river in training. You can’t go out and just think ‘we’re going to blast out’. You have to nail the process and keep going back to it. We did pretty well today.” 

Keenan said the final provided them the stepping stone they needed.  

“It was the race we wanted to win and the race we needed to win to set our campaign off to the right tone,” Keenan said.  

“There was no push over pairs in that event. Australian pair rowing is always pretty strong. We never got to have it easy out there. And they didn’t give it to us today.” 

Article courtesy of Rowing Australia