Medals in third World Rowing Cup for 2017

The senior Australian Rowing Team competed at the third and final World Rowing Cup event over the weekend, again bringing home five medals as they did in the second World Cup two weeks ago, and placing Australia equal second on the medal table after New Zealand (7 medals).

NSW Institute of Sport athletes were among those atop the podium, with Georgia Miansarow winning gold with the Women’s Lightweight Quad Scull. The Men’s Eight, which features six NSWIS scholarship holders, took silver in their event, whilst Gen Horton, Leah Saunders & Rowena Meredith claimed bronze in the Women’s Quad Scull.

This weekend’s regatta was held on the beautiful Rotsee in Lucerne, Switzerland.  Whilst conditions were good, times overall were nowhere near as fast as in Poznan, Poland.  However the racing was fast, furious and close as this was the final world class regatta before the World Championships in Sarasota, USA in late September, and countries are still weighing up what their final crews for Worlds will be.

There were several changes to the Australian men’s team with the men’s four that won in Poland moving in to the eight which had come fourth, and  the reserves that had performed so well in Poland pushing others out of key boats.  Conversely, the only change in the women’s team was that the lightweights raced in their preferred event – the quad – rather than two doubles.  Highlights of the regatta were the men’s eight coming second just 0.49 sec off the world’s fastest crew – the German men’s eight – in an incredibly exciting final, and the Lightweight Women’s Quad Scull setting a new World Cup record.

Results for #TeamNSWIS at the Lucerne World Rowing Cup:

Women

• Women’s Lightweight Quad Scull: Gold (Alice Arch, Melbourne Uni/VIS-NTC; Amy James, Toowong/QAS-NTC; Georgia Miansarow, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC; Georgia Nesbitt, Huon/TIS-NTC)
• Women’s Quad Scull: Bronze (Leah Saunders, Sydney/NSWIS-NTC; Gen Horton, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC; Rowena Meredith, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC; Caitlin Cronin, University of Queensland/QAS-NTC)

Men

• Men’s Eight: Silver (Angus Moore, Sydney/NSWIS-NTC; Josh Hicks, Sydney/NSWIS-NTC; Hamish Playfair, UTS/NSWIS-NTC; Tim Masters, UTS/VIS-NTC; Spencer Turrin, Sydney/NSWIS-NTC; Alex Purnell, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC, Jack Hargreaves, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC; Alex Hill, Adelaide/SASI-NTC; James Rook (Cox), Mercantile)
• Men’s Lightweight Quad Scull: 5^th (Hamish Parry, Toowong/QAS; Redmond Matthews, Mercantile; James Kerr, University of WA/WAIS; Sean Murphy, Mosman/NSWIS)
• Men’s Coxless Four: 11^th (Darcy Wruck, Toowong/QAS-NTC; Simon Keenan, Melbourne University/VIS; Campbell Watts, Sydney Uni/NSWIS-NTC; Angus Widdicombe, Mercantile/VIS-NTC)

Gen Horton, Rowena Meredith and Caitlin Cronin now return to the AIS European Training Centre to meet with Harriet Hudson of Sydney RC/NSWIS and prepare to race in the Women’s Quad Scull at the Under 23 World Championships in ten days’ time.  The remainder of the team return home today and will have a week training at home before final preparations and selections for the World Championships begin.

Full details of the results of the Lucerne World Cup can be found here.