Australian crews performed well in the finals at Rowing World Cup 3 in Lucerne Switzerland over the weekend. 

The Australian men’s quad scull won the bronze medal following a silver medal to the women’s double scull earlier in the day. 

Daniel Noonan (NSW), Karsten Forsterling (VIC), James McRae (SA) and Chris Morgan (SA) produced a barnstorming finish to claim the bronze medal.

Australia was in sixth place at the halfway mark but upped their rate and surged through the field to pass Switzerland, New Zealand and current world champions Croatia.

Germany claimed the gold medal, while Australia only fell half a second short of stealing the silver medal off Great Britain, crossing third in a time of 5:51.71.

Rowing Australia National High Performance Director Andrew Matheson said the crew showed good pace for early in their international season.

“The guys are really happy with their effort and their speed down the last half of the race is promising ahead of the world championships,”Matheson said. “They passed some pretty talented crews with ease down the stretch. 

Crow and Hore had won their heat and semi-final with strong rows and faced a six-boat field in the final including current world champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins of Great Britain.

The British combination had built almost a boat length lead at one stage but Australia produced a sensational kick in the second half of the race to pull close to the British, before finishing just less than 1.5 seconds behind in a time of 6:55.75.

Rowing Australia National High Performance Director Andrew Matheson said the combination was moving in the right direction.

“Kim and Kerry have made substantial gains against the world champions after Britain won by more than six seconds last year,” Matheson said. “It was a very promising race and they are very much looking forward to racing them again in Bled at the World Championships.”

The Australian duo will now set their sets on the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia (August 28-September 4) where a top eight finish would qualify the boat for the 2012 London Olympic Games. 

In other A final results, Australia’s men’s lightweight four of Sam Beltz (TAS), Ben Cureton (WA), Tom Gibson (TAS) and Anthony Edwards (TAS) finished fourth in a blanket finish.

Great Britain took the gold medal, while only 0.4 of a second separated Italy, Denmark and Australia, who recorded a time of 6:05.28.

The women’s lightweight double scull crew of Hannah Every-Hall (QLD) and Alice McNamara (VIC) finished fifth in the A Final in a time of 7:09.44.

World champions Canada controlled the race from the opening strokes to win ahead of Great Britain and the USA. 

The women’s quad scull of Amy Clay (NSW), Brooke Pratley (NSW), Sarah Cook (ACT) and Sally Kehoe (QLD) claimed fifth place in the final.

Earlier in the evening Australian crews took a clean sweep of all B Finals that they contested.

Sarah Tait (VIC) and Phoebe Stanley (VIC) won the B Final of the women’s pair and Olympic Champions David Crawshay (VIC) and Scott Brennan (TAS) triumphed in the B Final of the men’s double scull in their first World Cup together since Beijing.

The men’s four of Joshua Dunkley Smith (VIC), Nicholas Purnell (NSW), Sam Loch (NSW) and Drew Ginn (VIC) then claimed their B Final before the men’s eight completed the quarter of victories in the minor finals. 

“All our crews have a solid six-week block of training now and we are very much looking forward to racing at the world championships at the end of August.” 

The Australian team will now travel to the Australian Institute of Sport’s European Training Centre in Varese, Italy to complete a six week training block ahead of the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia (August 28 – September 4).

The world championships serve as the major qualification regatta for the 2012 London Olympic Games. 

Rowing Australia