Ingram and Lefroy Targeting #Rio2016 Berth
WAIS para-rowers Brock Ingram and Davinia Lefroy will this week contest the final qualification regatta in their quest to represent Australia in the Mixed Coxed Four at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.
With the duo in Milan (21-23 April) for the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta along with teammates Jeremy McGrath and Kate Murdoch (crew coxed by Jo Burnand), the Australian crew must finish in the top two to secure a berth for September’s Paralympic Games in Brazil.
Making his debut in the team this year is former national representative kayaker, Brock Ingram. Ingram originally rowed at school before turning to para-canoe-kayak after a work accident saw him lose a finger and have partial use of his remaining three.
“I started rowing at the age of 13 when I was at school, and rowed all through school. I did one season after I finished Schoolboy rowing but then I stopped rowing to pursue other interests. This time around, I got into it again, in part, due to the fact I could no longer compete in canoe-kayak as a para-athlete.
Ingram thought his Paralympic dreams might have been dashed after a re-classification excluded him from an eligible canoe event at Rio. An opportunity however, presented itself in para-rowing, and Ingram hasn’t looked back, except for when he’s in a rowing boat.
“I had previously been training in a hope to qualify for Rio in kayaking but due to changes in my classification I could no longer kayak and rowing was a sport I hadn’t forgotten about so I returned to it and am really enjoying the opportunities it is providing me with.”
“It’s a surreal opportunity to have been selected to row for Australia at the Final Paralympic Qualification Regatta. I would have never seen it coming two years ago and even six months ago it was so far out. We are really happy with the way the crew is going at the moment and looking forward to good things.”
There was also good news for WA athletes who have been named in Rowing Australia’s U23 World Championship team with further selections in the Australian U21 squad to contest the Rusty Robertson Trophy against New Zealand.
WAIS Train-on athletes James Kerr and Mitchell Boros have been selected in the men’s quadruple scull squad – which will be coached by WAIS coach Jamie Hewlett at the U23 World Championships in Rotterdam, whilst WAIS scholarship athletes Sam Marsh and Annabelle McIntyre along with train-ons Bronwyn Cox and Bree Kennedy-Smith will represent the Australian U21 squad in the trans-Tasman series, split across two regattas in Sydney and Lake Karapiro.