NSWIS athletes snare medals at World Rowing Cup 3

The Australian Rowing Team closed off the World Rowing Cup season with five medals on Sunday at World Rowing Cup 3 in Poznan, Poland, including a gold to NSWIS’ Cameron Girldestone, a silver to Chris Morgan and a bronze to Erik Horrie.

The final day of racing, saw Australian crews claim two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze medal, this was in addition to the para-rowing silver and bronze medals the team won yesterday in Poland.

Australia’s gold medals came from the Men’s Quadruple Sculls of James McRae, Cameron Girdlestone (NSWIS), Sasha Belonogoff and Karsten Forsterling and the Women’s Single Sculler, and reigning World Champion, Kim Brennan.  The Men’s Pair, Women’s Quadruple Sculls and TA Mixed Double Sculls won silver medals, while the bronze medals were claimed by the Men’s Four and the AS Men’s Single Sculls.

By virtue of winning seven medals at the event, Australia finished fourth on the medal table at World Rowing Cup 3, and sixth overall in the final World Rowing Cup standings. [Note: Australia only competed in two out of the three World Rowing Cups.]

General Manager – Sport, Jaime Fernandez said: “Our crews put in some fine performances across the weekend, including our para-rowers who were making their first international appearances this season.

“No doubt they will all gain further motivation from this weekend’s performances, having, for many, consolidated on their previous World Cup results in Lucerne. Now it is about continuing to identify where the opportunities lie and turning our attention to the final critical block of training ahead of Rio.”

Girdlestone’s Men’s Quadruple Sculls crew backed up their fine performance in the heats earlier in the week by winning gold in their race in Poznan. The crew were the fastest qualifiers alongside Germany and therefore began in the middle two lanes. By the halfway mark, Australia had taken the lead and were pulling away from the pack, leaving Germany and Poland to battle it out for second and third place.

At the close, it was Australia who wrapped up the win with a strong and composed race and in the process of winning gold also won the World Rowing Cup series for the boat class, having won back-to-back gold medals.

Belonogoff said post-race: “It was a good race for us given that it is only our second international race since we formed this combination. We have seven more weeks of training coming up in Italy and we don’t feel like we’ve had our best race yet.”

Having won their heat to progress straight to the A-Final, Genevieve Horton (NSWIS) and Sally Kehoe, were drawn in Lane 5 in the final of the Women’s Double Sculls, taking on France, Poland, Belarus, Great Britain and reigning World Champions, New Zealand.

Kehoe and Horton got away with the highest stroke rate and hit the first 500 metre marker the quickest, but the hometown favorites, Poland’s Magdalena Fularczyk and Natalia Madaj was moving with Australia and doing their best to push into the lead.

As the Poles took the lead, World Champions New Zealand began to make their way through the pack and put pressure on the Australians, while the French were also moving up. With 500 metres to go, the Australians had been passed by New Zealand and France who took silver and bronze, while the Australians slipped back to finish sixth overall.

In the B-Final of the Men’s Double Sculls, David Watts and Chris Morgan (NSWIS) featured in a four-boat race against Cuba, China and The Netherlands. Cuba shot out at the start, with the Dutch and Australians quick out the blocks too. The Cubans and Australians tussled in the middle of the race but the Cubans pulled ahead to take the win, while the Australian crew finished second and the Dutch were third.

The day before, Australia’s para-rowers, Erik Horrie (NSWIS), Kathryn Ross and Gavin Bellis won bronze and silver medals respectively.