Bronze medal for NSWIS Rower in first finals of the U23 World Championships

NSWIS rower Sam Hardy has highlighted the results after the first finals of the 2016 World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands; winning bronze in the men’s coxed four.

Hardy joined Jack Cleary, Texas Lawton, Henry Youl and cox Louis Copolov to race to the final step on the podium, following in winners New Zealand and silver medallists Italy.

New Zealand led for the entirety of the race, Italy and the Aussies hot on their heels and overlapping as they both attempted to chase down the Kiwis. Eventually the focus became the race for silver, Italy finding the edge to get to the line first, just 0.59 seconds ahead of Australia.

Also racing from NSWIS was Rowena Meredith who was joined by Tess Carty, Bridget Badenoch and Caitlin Cronin in the women’s quad scull for their A Final. The race was won by Poland, with the Aussies unable to match the pace.

In the men’s eight B Final the Aussies were across the line second, NSWIS’s Alex Purnell in the crew. The team raced with gusto to pull ahead of Russia who was third, challenging France on the line but falling short.

Meanwhile the competition for the 2016 World Junior Rowing Championships was also underway at the same location, the junior men’s coxed four showing promise ahead of their A Final.

The crew of NSWIS athletes that included Oliver Schwartz, Lachlan Miles, Joseph O’Brien, Marcus Britt and Lewis Willoughby finished behind Serbia in the repechage to progress to the final, significantly improving their time in the process.

In other results the junior men’s quad scull snatched a place in the A/B Semi Finals after a top three place in the quarterfinals. The team had looked good early on, until a late surge from Italy put their chance at third place in jeopardy. However NSWIS supported stroke Pasha Bevan responded brilliantly to spur the Aussies on in front, as they claimed third 0.57 seconds ahead of the Italians.

Also progressing from the repechage to the A/B Semi Finals was Harriet Hudson in the junior women’s single scull after she cruised to a comfortable win. Despite the winning result, the young NSWIS athlete had been thrown a curve ball prior to her race with wind conditions causing lanes to be re-drawn in favour of fastest qualifiers.

However that mattered little as Hudson drew lane one and then raced with remarkable control and calmness, similar to her hero Kim Brennan, defying the challenges from China’s Qianwen Yuan in lane two.

The men’s coxed four will race at 1pm on Sunday (7pm AEST), while Hudson is in action on Saturday evening (02:40 AEST)

Tonight’s racing

World Rowing have an online race tracker and are also beaming video of the races with minimal delay.  Both can be found on www.worldrowing.com

00:15 AEST – A Final of Under 23 Lightweight Women’s Double Scull

00:45 AEST – A Final of Under 23 Men’s Quadruple Scull

01;00 AEST – A Final of Under 23 Women’s Eight

01:30 AEST – A Final of Under 23 Women’s Single Scull