New Women’s National Training Centre opened for rowing

Australia’s female rowers have celebrated a massive boost to their gold medal hopes.

Sports Minister Stuart Ayres and Patron of Rowing Australia Gina Rinehart officially unveiled the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre (NTC) in Penrith on Saturday, situated on the banks of the stunning Nepean River.

The NSW Institute of Sport has been involved throughout the whole process of establishing the  NTC and contributed significant resources towards the project.

“This new purpose-built high performance facility means gold medal success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is within our grasp” Mr Ayres said.

“Australia has a rich history of rowing success and we were delighted to see athletes such as Lucy Stephan, Madeleine Edmunds and Georgia Miansarow bring home medals from the recent World Championships and this will help them do it again in Tokyo.

“Today’s opening also cements Western Sydney’s position as a thriving sports hub for elite athletes.”

Up to 25 top female rowers can now call the centre home, which comes equipped with a boat shed, a full rowing fleet, strength and conditioning facilities.

Rowing Australia President, Rob Scott said: “We thank our Patron Mrs Gina Rinehart, the New South Wales Government, NSW Institute of Sport, the Australian Institute of Sport, Rowing New South Wales and Penrith City Council for their vision and foresight to create this facility and invest in the future of women’s rowing.”

“I’d like also to acknowledge that our ability to provide our athletes in these centres with direct financial support along with world best coaching and sport science and medicine, is underpinned by our Patron Mrs Rinehart’s significant annual investment, in addition to her contribution to the building of the centre. Thank you also to the Nepean Rowing Club who’ve assisted our program whilst the permanent facility was being built.”

Women’s Four World Champion, Lucy Stephan said: “It’s awesome to be moving into our own dedicated facility here in Penrith. We really enjoy training on the Nepean River, it provides us with some of the best long distance training water in the country and we’re so excited to now be training out at the centre fulltime.”

This year Australia took home three gold medals, two silver and one bronze from the World Rowing Championships in Florida.

Credit: Rowing Australia