Rowing World Cup success for New South Wales athletes

It was an outstanding competition for Australia who topped the medal tally at the World Rowing Cup 2 in Poland, with four gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

Athletes from New South Wales featured heavily in the success of the Australian Rowing Team.

Australia’s Sean Murphy claimed gold in the Lightweight Men’s Single Scull A-Final. The 23-year-old didn’t lose a race throughout the regatta, picking up his first senior medal in the process.

Murphy admitted his racing and preparation had changed since making the step up from Under 23s into the Senior Australian Rowing Team.

“Our race plan has changed a lot recently. I’m now a lot stronger and fitter. I had two big pushes at the 500m and halfway mark.

“I know I can get quite excitable, so I needed to calm myself down as the reality is you can’t win from the start but you can lose a race from it.

“I’m so stoked with the outcome today!”

The Australian Men’s Four of Timothy Masters, Nicholas Purnell, Jack Hargreaves and Jack O’Brien took gold in a time of 6 minutes 16 seconds, while Italy took silver and Poland bronze.

NSWIS athlete Nicholas Purnell was delighted to take gold.

“We all come from very different rowing backgrounds and were all in very different crews last year, so it’s nice to come together to get such a result. We’re really happy with it.”

Australia’s Women’s Eight featuring Leah Saunders and Georgie Rowe beat the reigning World Champions, the United States, in their A-Final to take the win, with an excellent stroke rate of 39.

Post-race, NSWIS athlete Georgie Rowe was happy with the win.

“I enjoyed that race a lot but we really had to dig in when the USA was coming at us. We stayed tight together and it paid off.”

NSW Institute of Sport Scholarship Holder Erik Horrie opened the racing for Australia on the final day, with the PR1 Men’s Single Sculler taking home a silver medal in his boat class.

Alex Purnell and Cam Girdlestone teamed up with Caleb Antill (ACT) and David Watts (WA) to secure silver in the Men’s Quadruple Scull, whilst Genevieve Horton combined with Victorian compatriot Amanda Bateman to take bronze in the Women’s Double Scull.

Lightweight Men’s Double Scull athlete Leon Chambers paired with Hamish Parry to leave the competition with a bronze.

Above – Erik Horrie (Images Credit: Rowing Australia)