Seven WA Athletes Form Part of Record Rowing Squad
Following their efforts at the final qualification regatta in Poznan, Poland last month Australia has qualified boats in 14 rowing events for the first time and as a result will be the largest section of the 2008 Australian Olympic Team with 48 athletes.
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Western Australia will have representatives in four of those events with Western Australian Institute of Sport athletes David Dennis, Jeremy Stevenson, Natalie Bale*, Todd Skipworth, Ben Cureton and Amber Bradley named to team along with Sarah Tait, who is now based at the Victorian Institute of Sport. Dennis and Stevenson will don the green and gold in the Men’s Eight, Bale will do the same in the Women’s Eight while Skipworth and Cureton form half of the Men’s Lightweight Four and Bradley will take part in the Women’s Quad Scull.
Three of the crews (Men’s Eight, Women’s Eight and Men’s Lightweight Four) that feature WA athletes returned from the recent World Cup season in Europe with medals, marking them as medal possibilities for Beijing.
The addition of the seven rowers takes the total number of West Australians officially named to the 2008 Australian Olympic Team thus far to 21 with further announcements for men’s football,gymnastics, men’s hockey and men’s water polo expected within the next week.
Full biographies forthe seven rowers are available on the AOC’s official website – http://www.olympics.com.au/Athletes/TheTeam/tabid/343/Default.aspx?TeamID=17&SportID=18&DisciplineID=-1#teamTableContainer . For a full listing of all WA athletes selected thus far for the 2008 Australian Olympic Team head to www.olympics.com.au/wa .
*Note: Natalie Bale has been selected pending an appeal.