Girdlestone aims to row to Rio via Tassie then Europe

The Rio Olympic Games may be just around the corner but NSWIS rower Cameron Girdlestone will see plenty of water pass under his oars over the next few months as he bids for selection and then gold in Australia’s men’s quad sculls crew.

Girdlestone, along with crewmates Karsten Forsterling, James McRae and Sasha Belonogoff are genuine medal contenders in Rio. The Australians, with Girdlestone and Fosterling on board, qualified the boat by winning silver at last year’s world rowing championships in France.

The foursome have not however been officially named for Rio, having to wait until July to have their names locked in but that will not deter them in the coming months.

The crew have been training on Tasmania’s Huon River, near the home of coach John Driessen before heading to Europe to compete in World Cup regattas in Switzerland and Poland. The final part of their Rio preparations will take place in their Italian training base in the weeks leading up to the Games.

Germany are the defending Olympic and world champions and will be the crew to beat in Rio but Sydney University Boat Club’s Girdlestone told ABC’s Scott Rollinson he and his crew mates were not worried about the competition.

"Its not about anyone else, its about the four of us, and being in harmony with the boat," Girdlestone said.

"If we can do that and execute that, that’s going to be helping us along the way to put our bow ball across the line first," he said.

"For us, we’ll have an idea of a race plan and what we want to execute and our target points, but its about getting into our rhythm and our boat, and it’s all about the boat come Rio."