Eight is Great as Rowers Take Gold

Published On: 12 May 2008

WAIS rowers lifted gold in both the women’s and men’s eight races over the weekend at the first rowing World Cup event in Munich, Germany.

Nat Bale helped the Aussie women home in an exceptional effort in their A Final. The crew crossed the line in a time of 6:36.29min to lead home China by two boat lengths with Romania claiming bronze.

China had made the early running, leading by just under a second with half the race completed until Australia turned on the power to surge home in the final 750m.

The women’s eight crew had been forced to rehash their race plans after confronting early conditions had placed the boat behind in the order.

“We got caught in a bit of dirty water at the start of the race which put us further back than we wanted,” said women’s eight team Captain, and former WAIS athlete Sarah Tait.

“We wanted to build a lead from the start but we changed our plan which shows the great versatility of the group.”

David Dennis and Jeremy Stevenson helped the men’s eight to a confidence building gold medal row after their crew out gunned Great Britain and China to win the first of three World Cup events.

Australia showed form and character, leading from start to finish, with a final time of 6:05.38min.

Despite the positive result, the crew continue to remain focused on Beijing, not allowing the group to be carried away by one result.

“It is great to win the gold but it is only the first step so we won’t get too carried away with this one,” said crew member Stephen Stewart.

“We got out to a great lead but hit some messy water in the second 1000m so just consolidated our position and then pushed when the others started coming back at us.

Amber Bradley and her women’s quad scull crew managed to qualify for the A Final, finishing in fifth place. The crew will be looking to improve on that performance in the following World Cup events.

Australia will now enter a two week training camp in Varese, Italy before all Australian crews compete at the second World Cup in Switzerland on May 30 – June 1.