ROWING: A rower out of Ballarat is making his mark on the lightweight rowing scene and no, it is not legendary 5-time Olympian Anthony Edwards. His name is Geoff Creber.
ROWING: A rower out of Ballarat is making his mark on the lightweight rowing scene and no, it is not legendary 5-time Olympian Anthony Edwards. His name is Geoff Creber.
As a successful cross-country athlete, young Creber made his transition into sculling in quite ironic fashion.
Having represented Victoria at an underage level previously, Creber was on a training run around Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree when he stopped by his school boatshed.
Then just a newcomer to the Ballarat Grammar sweep-rowing program, Creber “just rocked up” to the senior training session that night to catch a glimpse of them training.
The hope was that he could gain an understanding of the training standard required to put him ahead of the rest of novices he was learning with. What Creber got instead was an introduction to sculling.
It was there where he got the exposure to the rowing discipline that would ultimately lead him towards representing Victoria in the lightweight men’s double scull at the AYOF.
With priorities lying with the school sweep rowing program, Creber juggled both sweeping and sculling as a way to accelerate his learning and skill acquisition across both disciplines.
“I loved the challenge of learning and improving,” he said.
“I was fairly new to sweep rowing… (Extra sculling) built my technique across both disciplines.”
Having raced at regional regattas last season and at school level, Creber’s excitement towards racing at a whole new level is evident.
“The AYOF is the biggest regatta I have competed in.
“I hope to learn as much as I can and to perform at my best.”
With the AYOF as his stepping-stone, Creber harbours an ambition to pursue rowing at an elite level.
“My long term goal is to represent Australia at an international level.”
Creber is currently training out of Ballarat City Rowing Club- the club where Edwards started his international career at before switching to Wendouree-Ballarat RC. He is on the right path to success, but knows that his school rowing needs to take priority.
“I will only get one shot at school rowing and the time for that is now.”
Regardless of which rowing discipline Creber decides to focus on in the future, Ballarat has a new lightweight rower to keep their eye on.
Lachlan Millar
Olympics.com.au
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