Silver Medal for Hagan and Vermeersch at World Cup III

The Australian women’s four crew containing WAIS athletes Alex Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch have won a silver medal at World Cup III in Lucerne.

The London 2012 Olympic finalists – competing with new crew partners Charlotte Sutherland (VIC) and Lucy Stephan (VIC) – won the Australian team’s first medal on day two of the World Cup as they continued preparations for the upcoming U23 and senior World Championships.

The Australian crew produced a measured performance, moving their way up from third into second position behind the leading Canadians and ahead of the boat from the Netherlands. They went on to challenge the Canadians pushing the pace right towards the final sprint for the line. Canada held on to cross the line first, Australia earned silver, with the Netherlands in third.

Hannah Vermeersch who contested the women’s eight in London 2012 said she was pleased with the team’s performance after their preliminary ‘race for lanes’ on Friday.

“We held a much better rhythm, which was a good step up and good progression going into the Under 23 World Championships in a couple weeks and ultimately the big World Champs in Korea. This is a step along the way,” she said.

“We are still young and everything we do is a learning curve, every race, everything and winning a medal is a big positive in all of this.”

The crew, coached by Melbourne’s Mercantile Rowing Club coach Mark Fangen-Hall, will proceed to a training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport’s European Training Centre in Varese, Italy on Monday before heading to the Under 23 World Rowing Championships in Linz, Austria at the end of July (25-28 July).

Following this, the crew will head back to Australia and join the women’s eight in their preparation for the World Rowing Championships in South Korea at the end of August (25 August – 1 September).

Australian results and race reports are available on the Rowing Australia website www.rowingaustralia.com.au.

-RowingAustralia