ROWING: The Australian Rowing Team commenced its 2013 World Rowing Championship campaign under cloudy skies in Chungju, South Korea. Day-by-day highlights can be found below.

FINAL DAY HIGHLIGHTS:

Dual London 2012 Olympic medallist Kim Crow has topped off a successful regatta for the Australian Rowing Team at the World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea, producing a gold medal winning performance in the Women’s Single Scull.  Having won both World Cup events in which she has competed this year, Crow entered the Championships undefeated in her chosen boat class in 2013. She opened up an early and impressive lead, dominating the race to finish over a boat length ahead of her nearest competitor.
 
“The race plan today was for the first 500 metres, just to be in my own boat, so when I looked up at 750 metres for the first time I was surprised to see that I was ahead. From that moment on, I just kept going stroke after stroke to the finish line”, said Crow following the race.

More of Crow's reaction here >>>

Four other Australian crews took to the water on the final day of competition under slightly cloudy skies, high humidity and a slight head breeze. The Women’s Eight performed admirably in their A Final, having overcome illness and crew changes throughout the regatta to finish in fifth place. The Men’s Double Scull, Lightweight Men’s Four and Men’s Eight all contested B Finals with pleasing results, finishing second, fourth and first respectively.
 
Australia comes away from the regatta placing second on the medal tally behind Italy, with a total of six medals – three gold, two silver and one bronze.

DAY 7 HIGHLIGHTS:

The Men’s Four has added another medal to Australia’s tally on the penultimate day of competition at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea.  Only four Australian crews were in action on a day that saw mixed results in cloudy and humid conditions.
 
The new look Australian Four contains two silver medallists from the 2012 London Olympics in Josh Dunkley-Smith and Will Lockwood, who were joined by youngsters Spencer Turrin and Alex Lloyd. In what was an extremely close race, with just 0.63 seconds separating gold and silver, Australia can look forward to a bright future with this new combination.
 
Also in action today were the Lightweight Women’s Double Scull, Women’s Quad Scull and Women’s Pair, all contesting B Finals. They finished first, second and sixth respectively.
 
Drew Ginn, Head Coach-Integration, was happy with today’s performances – “The Men’s Four was oh so close! They did a really good job in setting themselves up to win, they just couldn’t get it across the line. They improved throughout the regatta and that’s all we can ask.”
 
“The women’s crews also did well in their respective B Finals – it’s good to see them finishing off the regatta well, though they will be disappointed they didn’t make the A Final.”

DAY 6 HIGHLIGHTS:

Ten Australian crews took to the water on the sixth day of the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea. Racing was conducted under hazy conditions with high humidity as the Australian’s finished the day with one silver and one bronze medal.
 
The Lightweight Men’s Eight of Jack Price, Tim Mc Donnell, Tim Widdicombe, Ali Foot, Blair Tunevitsch, Darryn Purcell, Nick Silcox, Simon Nola and cox Tim Webster came away with a silver medal, despite Purcell, Silcox, Tunevitsch and Foot backing up from the Semi Final of the Men’s Four only two and a half hours earlier. The young Australian Women’s Four of Hannah Vermeersch, Alexandra Hagan, Charlotte Sutherland and Lucy Stephan claimed bronze in their race after a valiant effort against far more experienced crews. After claiming gold at the 2013 Under 23 World Rowing Championships, this crew will definitely be one to watch in future years.
 
In another dominant display, Kim Crow progressed comfortably through the semi-final in the Women’s Single Scull. Leading the race from start to finish, Kim will be looking to continue her unbeaten run in this boat class as she races the A Final on Sunday.

DAY 5 HIGHLIGHTS:

The standout performance of the day belonged to the Men’s Four of Will Lockwood, Alex Lloyd, birthday boy Spencer Turrin and Josh Dunkley. The young Australian crew controlled the race through the middle 1000 metres before being challenged by Italy in the race to the finish. The final 500 metres was a thrilling contest as the Australian and Italian crews battled stroke for stroke, the Italians narrowly beating out the brave Australian crew by 0.48 seconds at the line with Olympic champions Great Britain relegated to third. The Australian crew has recorded the second fastest qualifying time and will go into the A Final with confidence, hoping to go one better than at last year’s Olympic regatta.

The Australian Women’s Four, Lightweight Men’s Quad, Lightweight Women’s Quad and Lightweight Men’s Eight will all be hoping to add to Australia’s medal haul when they race their A Finals tomorrow.

The Lightweight Women’s Double Scull, Lightweight Women’s Single Scull and Women’s Pair all missed out on progressing to their respective A Finals and will now focus on winning their B Finals to finish their regattas on a high.

The last Australians to race for the day were the Men’s Pair of Bryn Coudraye and James McRae and Nick Purnell in the Men’s Single Scull, with both crews progressing comfortably from their C/D semi-finals to qualify for their respective C Finals tomorrow.

 

DAY 4 HIGHLIGHTS:

While the entire Australian Rowing Team continues to perform strongly, the day belonged to the two Para-rowing crews.

Erik Horrie captured the first Gold medal of the regatta with a dominant performance in the Arms and Shoulders Men’s Single Scull (ASM1x), leading at every split to cross the line 7 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

Inspired by Australia’s golden start the Trunk and Arms Mixed Double Scull (TAMix2x) of Kathryn Ross and Gavin Bellis produced a sensational performance to hold off Paralympic Silver medalists France to secure Australia’s second Gold medal of the regatta.

In other Australian performances on the fourth day of the regatta the Lightweight Men’s Quad Scull, Men’s Double Scull and Lightweight Men’s Four all progressed from their repechages, while the Men’s Eight and Men’s Single Scull both narrowly missed out on advancing in their respective categories.

DAY 3 HIGHLIGHTS:

The Australian Rowing Team performed strongly on day three of the World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea with all but two crews remaining in medal contention following a day of repechages and races for lanes.

Lightweight Women’s Double Scull: The Lightweight Women’s Double Scull recovered from early difficulties to produce a blistering middle thousand metres and chase down the field to secure a place in the semi-finals. The Australian combination of Maia Simmonds and Alice McNamara caught a massive crab in the start area and lost many lengths to the other crews as the race settled with Sweden in front from Denmark, Korea and Vietnam. The new Australian combination bravely commenced their pursuit of the field and produced the fastest middle 1000m of the race to pass the crews from Korea and Vietnam with 500m to go. Knowing that a top three finish would book them a spot in the semi-finals the Australian crew elected not to pursue the Swedish and Danish crews, opting instead to conserve energy for the next round of racing.
 
Women’s Four: As there were only six entries for this non-Olympic event a race for lanes was conducted, with Australia represented by the recently crowned  Under 23 World Champions in this boat class Hannah Vermeersch, Alex Hagan, Charlotte Sutherland and Lucy Stephan. The Australian crew produced a strong start to establish an early lead but by the 1000m mark of the race the USA, Canada and Germany all showed their senior international experience in moving past the Australian crew. The young Australians, who are all doubling up in the women’s eight, raced within themselves from that point to conserve energy for the two A Finals that they will contest later in the regatta. The Australian crew crossed the line in fourth place and will chase a podium finish from either lane 2 or 5 in the final of this event.
 
Lightweight Women’s Single Scull Repechage: Australia’s Ella Flecker took to the water in her repechage of the Lightweight Women’s Single Scull needing to finish either first or second to advance to the semi-finals.By the half way mark Flecker had moved into second place behind Canada, with Ireland not far behind. From that point on it was stroke for stroke between those two crews for the all-important second place which would secure qualification for the Semi Finals. In a tight finish Flecker maintain her composure under heavy pressure from the Irish sculler to finish second behind Canada and advance to the semi finals in an impressive display from the young Tasmanian. 

Lightweight Men’s Eight: With limited entries in this boat class at the World Championships the Lightweight Men’s Eight of Jack Price, Tim Widdicombe, Tim McDonnell, Ali Foot, Blair Tunevitsch, Darryn Purcell, Nick Silcox, Simon Nola and cox Tim Webster rowed within themselves to cross the line in third place and secure either lane 3 or 5 for the A Final.

Women’s Pair: Tess Gerrand was replaced in the crew due to illness, with Bec Daniher joining Katrina Bateman to race the repechage of this event. Daniher, who also replaced Gerrand in the Women’s Eight yesterday as Gerrand recovers from illness, has performed exceptionally given difficult circumstances and again combined well with Bateman in this crew. The Australians started well to lead the race at the half way mark at which point they began to conserve energy for later races safe in the knowledge that third place would secure progression. At the line it was Russia from Italy with Australia close behind in third and already looking ahead to Thursday’s semi final.

Despite a great finishing burst from the Australian Men's Pair James McRae and Bryn Courdraye, they were unable to move beyond third and will now contest the C/D semi finals on Thursday.
 
The young Australian crew of Rebekah Hooper, Jessica Hall, Madeline Edmunds and Olympia Aldersey, Under 23 World Champions in the Women’s Quad Scull in 2012, threw down the gauntlet to the field, but narrowly finished third and will now contest the B Final as they continue to gain international experience and development on the road to Rio 2016.

DAY 2 HIGHLIGHTS:

A strong performance from the Australian Rowing Team on the second day of heats at the 2013 World Rowing Championships in Chungju, South Korea was highlighted by a dominant display by dual London 2012 Olympic medallist Kim Crow who recorded the fastest heat time in progressing straight to the semi-finals.

Crow, who only raced in a Single Scull for the first time a little over fourteen months ago and who won medals in both the single and double sculls at the Olympics as the only athlete to double up at that regatta, has elected to focus her attention on the single scull event in 2013.  Crow is undefeated in her chosen boat class in 2013 having won both World Cup events in which she has competed, and will be looking to add a World Championship Gold Medal to her collection as she progresses through this regatta.

The Women’s Eight also produced an impressive performance to qualify for the A Final of their event despite illness forcing a late crew change. Australia has developed a new and exciting Women’s Eight in 2013 which contains Hannah Vermeersch , Renee Chatterton, Peta White , Katrina Bateman, Tess Gerrand, Alexandra Hagan, Charlotte Sutherland, Lucy Stephan, Elizabeth Patrick (cox), a combination that demonstrated their potential in winning the first World Cup race for the year in Sydney. On this occasion Gerrand was replaced in the crew by Rebecca Daniher due to illness.

The Australian crew got out of the blocks well to lead narrowly over the USA, knowing that a first or second place finish would provide direct progression through to the A Final. At half way the USA had established half a length lead over Australia who maintained a clear gap to rest of the field headed by Great Britain. By 1500m the favourites from the USA had extended their lead with the third place crew from Great Britain lifting to challenge Australia, however the young Australian crew maintained their composure to claim second and advance directly to the A Final on Sunday. The performance was particularly noteworthy given the crew change, with Daniher producing a great row at late notice.
 
The Australian Lightweight Women’s Quad Scull of Alex Hayes, Georgia Nesbitt, Georgia Miansarow and Hannah Clark faced a similar task to their male counterparts, knowing that they had to finish first or second in their heat to advance directly to Friday’s A-Final. After a conservative start the young Australian crew found themselves in third place behind Russia and the USA by the half way point of the race. Realising that only a top two finish would provide automatic qualification the Australian crew dug deep to pass Russia in the third 500m of the race and set their sights on the pace setting American crew. In an exciting race to the line the USA held off a fast finishing Australian crew, who secured second place.


Through to repecharge:
 
Men’s Lightweight Quad Scull: The Men’s Lightweight Quad Scull comprising James Wilson, Ed De Carvalho, Adam Kachyckyj and Perry Ward were unable to move beyond fourth place in the six boat field in their heat. The young crew have learned a lot from the International racing experience and will now turn their attention to Wednesday’s repechage (AEST) where they will hope to progress through to the semi finals.

Men’s Double Scull: Sasha Belonogoff and Tom Swann combined to contest their heat of the Men’s Double Scull, with Swann having turned his hand to sculling after rowing in the men’s eight at the London 2012 Olympic Regatta. Despite showing good speed in the middle stages, the Australian crew was unable to move past the leading Great Britain and New Zealand crews to secure automatic progression. The crew will now take to Wednesday’s repechage with some confidence as they attempt to advance to the semi finals which will be raced on Friday.
 
Lightweight Men’s Four: A new Australian combination for 2013 of Ali Foot, Blair Tunevitsch, Nick Silcox and Darryn Purcell raced heat three of the Lightweight Men’s Four. A concerted push from the Australian crew over the last 500m moved them into third place, but was not enough to secure automatic progression. The crew will now turn its attention to the repechage as Australia continues to rebuild its depth in a boat class that was affected by retirements following London 2012 but which has traditionally been a successful event for Australian rowing.

Men’s Eight: With only two heats to be raced in this boat class the young Australian Men’s Eight of Ned Kinnear, Cameron Brewer , Angus Moore, Alexander Hill, George Ellis, Scott Laidler, Brendan Murray, Thomas Gatti and David Webster (cox) knew they had their work cut out to secure direct progression from a competitive heat which also contained Olympic Champions Germany along with strong crews from Poland, the Netherlands and Russia. Germany established an early lead with Poland in second place followed by the Netherlands and Australia in hot pursuit. The Australian crew maintained the pressure throughout the full 2000m but were unable to move past their Eurpoean competition and will now contest the repechage on Wednesday where they will need a top two finish to qualify.

 

DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS:

The Australian Rowing Team competed well on the first day of their campaign, with two crews qualifying directly for the next round of their respective progressions, and the remaining crews progressing to repechages.

The new Australian Men’s Four crew contains two silver medallists in this boat class from London 2012 in Josh Dunkley–Smith and Will Lockwood, who have been joined by youngsters Spencer Turrin and Alex Lloyd. Winners of two World Cup races, the Australians got out of the blocks well to lead narrowly over Serbia and Belarus, knowing that a top two finish would secure direct qualification to the Semi Finals. The Australian crew maintained their lead throughout the heat despite a strong challenge from Belarus in the latter stages of the race, maintained their composure to hang on to win and advance directly to the Semi Finals on Thursday.

In the Men’s Single Scull, Nick Purnell, 2012 Olympian in the men’s eight, raced heat four of six knowing that a top three finish would secure direct qualification to the Quarter Finals. Purnell began well behind Campbell of Great Britain and Bulgaria’s Bozhilov and was a clear third by 500 metres. The race order did not change, with the first three including Purnell, comfortably leading the rest of the field and advancing easily to the Quarter Finals. Purnell sprinted well at the end to finish in second place, a good effort considering the race was his first international sculling race.


Through to repecharge:

Lightweight Women’s Single Scull: Tasmanian medical student Ella Flecker crossed the line in fourth and will now contest the repechage on Tuesday.

Women’s Pair: Tess Gerrand and Katrina Bateman will be looking to produce a faster start in their repechage to secure a semi-final spot. Their fourth place finish did allow them to conserve energy for later races within the regatta with both athletes also doubling up in the eight.

Men's Pair: James McRae (London Olympic bronze medallist, quad scull) and Bryn Coudraye (London Olympian, men's eight) combined in an unfamiliar boat for them to contest the Men’s Pair. While the Australian crew showed good speed to lead through the first 500 metres and continued to challenge throughout, the International experience of their competitors was a factor with Italy establishing the upper hand to win the heat and become the only crew to advance directly to the semi-finals. The Australian crew will now take on the repechage on Tuesday.

Lightweight Women’s Double Scull: A new Australian combination of Maia Simmonds and Alice McNamara raced heat one of this event. McNamara was the reserve for this event in London 2012 and she and Simmonds began well to have a slight lead in the early stages of the race. Unfortunately the Australian were overcome by the Italians and Germans and will seek to qualify for the semi-finals via the repechage later in the regatta.

Women’s Quad Scull: With only two heats raced in the women’s quad scull boat class, the young Australian crew knew that only a win would secure direct progression to the A Final.  In an exciting finish Canada drove to the line with Australia, who had moved into second place, just being pipped on the line by early leader Poland to finish in third place. They will now focus on securing an A Final spot through the repechage.

Olympics.com.au with Rowing Australia