Medal Success for WA Rowers at World Championships
Western Australian rowers have won medals across three boats at the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Bulgaria.
Joshua Hicks and the Australian men’s four (M4-) defended their world title in Plovdiv, David Watts and the Australian men’s quad scull (M4x) picked up an impressive silver medal, whilst Annabelle McIntyre and the Australian women’s eight (W8+) collected a bronze medal, ending a world championships drought in the event stretching back 12 years.
Hicks and the Australian men’s four entered the World Championships as the gold medal favourites, but they underlined their credentials with a hard fought victory in their A-Final.
Despite leading throughout and executing a strong race plan, the Australians were forced to dig deep after an extraordinary final 1000m from the silver medallists, Italy.
The Italians were over three seconds behind the Australians with only 500m to go, but closed to within three tenths of a second by the finish line. Great Britain picked up the bronze medal in third.
Hicks was joined in the boat by Alexander Hill, Spencer Turrin and Jack Hargreaves, with the latter commending the crew’s efforts in winning back to back gold.
“It was a good race; we’ve really stepped up through the regatta. We weren’t really happy with our heat, but we got better in our semi and ultimately in the final. I have to say full credit to the other crews who pushed us all the way, but we’re extremely happy to win the World Championships again, it’s been a great year,” Hargreaves said.
In the men’s quad scull final, the Australian crew of Watts, Caleb Antill, Campbell Watts and Alexander Purnell fought tooth and nail to earn a spot on the medal dais.
Whilst the race was controlled at the front by world champion Italy, the battle for the minor medals behind was intense. The Australians sat last at the half way point, before moving through the field to rank fourth at the final split. They would eventually overtake crews from the Netherlands, Poland and New Zealand for a famous silver medal.
Ukraine followed Australia’s lead to move from sixth at the 1500m mark to third by the finish.
Australia’s women’s eight crew ended a long wait for a world championship medal, after they defied earlier world cup form to storm home for a bronze medal.
The crew included 22 year-old senior world championship debutant Annabelle McIntyre who collected a senior international medal to join the silver success she earned with Bronwyn Cox in the women’s pair at last year’s U23 titles.
Australia eclipsed crews from the Netherlands, Romania and Great Britain to finish third behind traditional powerhouse nations in the eight, the USA and Canada.
There was also a highly impressive performance from London 2012 Olympian Hannah Vermeersch, who partnered Addy Dunkley-Smith to register an eighth overall ranking in the women’s pair. The girls finished second in the B-Final behind Great Britain.
Overall, Australia finished fifth on the medal tally after picking up seven medals across competition.
Photo: © Rowing Australia