Australia’s women’s quad scull has come within a whisker of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games on the opening day of the 2011 FISA World Rowing Championships as Australia’s crews enjoyed a strong start in Bled, Slovenia.
Australia’s women’s quad scull has come within a whisker of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games on the opening day of the 2011 FISA World Rowing Championships as Australia’s crews enjoyed a strong start in Bled, Slovenia.
The athletes were greeted by cooler conditions on the first day of racing following extreme heat in the days leading up to the main qualification regatta for next year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Australia’s crews claimed three race wins, six second places and two thirds in their 11 races, but all eyes were on the first event to offer Olympic qualification.
With one crew from each of the two heats of the women’s quad scull set to gain automatic qualification for the six-boat A Final, which would also guarantee a quota for next year (the top seven crews in the women’s quad scull gain Olympic qualification), the crowds were brought to their feet with a grandstand finish.
Stroked by Sally Kehoe (QLD), the Australian women’s quad scull also featuring Brooke Pratley (NSW), Sarah Cook (ACT) and Amy Clay (NSW), led the race for the first 1500m before New Zealand and current world champions Great Britain challenged.
New Zealand took the victory by just 0.42 of a second, while Australia finished in second position in a time of 6:22.89, with Great Britain another 0.17 of a second back in third.
Cook said the crew enjoyed the first hit out at the regatta.
“This was a really good first step in our regatta and we are looking forward to stepping it up in the repechage,” Cook said. “We have had a great training block at the AIS European Training Centre over the past six weeks and I think that showed today.
“We want to do a better job in the repechage though and we know what we need to do to achieve that.”
Australia will now row a repechage on Tuesday, with the top two crews from each repechage progressing to the A Final.
2010 world championship silver medallists Kim Crow (VIC) and Kerry Hore (TAS) were dominant in their heat of the women’s double scull to claim victory and progress to the semi-finals.
Crow and Hore led from start to finish, winning in a time of 6:56.50 and will receive a seeded lane for the semi-final.
Women’s double scull and Australian women’s head coach Lyall McCarthy said he was pleased with his crew’s first race.
“It’s been a long time and we’ve had six weeks preparing for this since Lucerne,” McCarthy said. “We’re ready to go now and it is good to get the first race out of the way.
“Our first step at this regatta was to have a better start than what we had in Lucerne and we’re just gearing up to put a little bit of speed into our formula now.
“Now we can step it up to see if we can really get a bit more action out of the start and light it up a bit.”
The men’s quad scull of Daniel Noonan (NSW), Karsten Forsterling (VIC), James McRae (SA) and Chris Morgan (SA) also won their heat as they look to add to silver and bronze medals won at the past two world championships.
Stroked by Noonan, Australia defeated Olympic champions Poland by over 2.5 seconds in a time of 5:49.23.
Australia’s lightweight men’s pair of Blair Tunevitsch (TAS) and Tom Gibson (TAS) won their heat with an impressive second 1000m that saw them overhaul Italy.
Tunevitsch and Gibson took the lead shortly after the 1000m buoys and were never headed, crossing the line in 6:36.04 and qualifying for the semi-finals.
Joining them at the semi-final stage was the women’s pair of Kate Hornsey (TAS) and Sarah Tait (VIC), who finished second behind Great Britain in their heat.
Hornsey only joined Tait in the crew on Wednesday following the withdrawal of Phoebe Stanley (VIC), but the pair looked comfortable together as they recorded a time of 7:12.22.
In other racing Australia’s men’s eight pushed world champions Germany down the course to finish second and qualify for the semi-finals, while David Crawshay (VIC) and Scott Brennan (TAS) will face a repechage despite finishing second in a solid row behind Germany in their heat.
Australia’s men’s four and lightweight men’s four crews both finished second in their heats and will row repechages later in the week in order to progress to the semi-finals.
Cameron McKenzie-McHarg (VIC) and Tom Larkins (VIC) finished third in the men’s pair, while Nicholas Hudson (NSW) also finished in third in the men’s single scull to move through to the quarter-finals.
Racing on Day 2 (Monday August 29) will commence at 9.30am local time with heats of the Paralympic boat classes.
Rowing Australia