Silver for Simmonds and Aussie Lightweight Quad Scull

WAIS athlete Maia Simmonds has claimed a silver medal at the 2014 Rowing World Championships in Amsterdam after finishing second in the women’s lightweight quad scull as a member of the Australian crew.

Simmonds – rowing with Australian teammates; Sarah Pound, Laura Dunn and Hannah Every-Hall – crossed the line second, in 6:19.540 to finish behind new world champions the Netherlands, whilst Germany picked up bronze.

The Australian crew got off to a steady start, and was ranked third through the first 500m and 1km halfway point, before increasing their stroke-rate to haul themselves into the silver medal position by the 1500m mark.

Despite a late challenge from Germany, Australia was never seriously threatened for second place, whilst the host Dutch crew eased to a comfortable win, crossing first in 6:15.950.

Simmonds was delighted with the result but admitted she needed to pinch herself.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet that we’ve won the silver medal,” she said post race.

Simmonds’ WAIS training partner Perry Ward also featured in an A Final, contesting the men’s lightweight single scull, where he finished in sixth place, in a time of 6:59.840. Italian Miani Marcello won gold, whilst Germany’s Lars Hartig and Switzerland’s Michael Schmid won silver and bronze respectively.

WAIS rowers Alex Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch competed in the Australian women’s eight, but the boat missed the A Final, and finished fourth in the B Final.