Annabelle McIntyre makes history as first Western Australian to win Olympic rowing gold
WAIS rowing graduate Annabelle McIntyre completed a first for Western Australian sport on Wednesday 28 July winning Olympic gold in rowing.
Having set an Olympic Best time on route to the final McIntyre along with Lucy Stephan, Rosemary Popa and Jessica Morrison were in control from the start of the race. The Australian four was ahead at the 500m, 1000m and 1500m marks with the Dutch team close behind. A strong finish from the Dutch was more than matched by McIntyre and the Australian team to storm to the line.
Speaking to The West Australian, Acting WAIS Rowing Head Coach Jamie Hewlett said. “She was always tough, always there and always tried really hard, but we wouldn’t have picked her as our first gold medallist, ever,”
“She didn’t have the biggest engine in the world and wasn’t an absolute monster, but was just so focused. She’s switched on and smart and brought the whole of the rest of the sport psych package and then just trained better and smarter than the rest of the world.
“She’s a great racer, but her feel on the water and technical ability… she just picks the run of a boat like nobody else. I’m not sure we’ve seen somebody technically as good as her before.”
The roof of Rowing WA’s Mount Pleasant headquarters, where McIntyre’s parents John and Jane were watching with their rowing “family”, nearly lifted off into the adjoining Swan River as the gold medal was won.
McIntyre and Morrison also lined up in the pair semifinal, where they were heavily favoured to move through to the final and a second gold. The schedule change due to weather saw them compete less than two hours later and narrowly miss making the final, finishing fourth.
The victory as made even sweeter with WA’s Jack Cleary part of the bronze medal winning men’s quad. Australia had their best ever day on the water winning four rowing medals in the space of an hour. Gold followed in the men’s four with the men’s and women’s quad sculls both earning bronze.