Skipworth to Row for World Title

Published On: 4 November 2010

Todd Skipworth is a member of the Australian men's lightweight four

Western Australian Institute of Sport rower Todd Skipworth has advanced through to the A Final of the lightweight men’s four, and will compete for a world championship this weekend on Lake Karapiro in New Zealand.

Rowing with the Tasmanian trio of Blair Tunevitsch, Sam Beltz and Anthony Edwards, Skipworth and the Australian boat finished third in the semi-final behind China and the Netherlands in a time of 6:21.88, with the top four boats all crossing the line within 1.3 seconds of each other.

Skipworth, who rowed stroke for the crew, explained that they put it on the line in the last 500m, following a bunch finish that saw the crew overtake Switzerland in the last 200m.

“You don’t get too many chances in the stroke seat to assess the situation but I had a look across to take heed of where we were at in the race,” Skipworth said.

“There was a big call from Ed (Anthony Edwards) in the bow. He called how much do you want it and that was sort of a go now or go home call so we wound up from there and we were lucky we ran over the Swiss in the last 250 metres.”

Also in World Championship action on Lake Karapiro was the men’s lightweight eight – a non Olympic boat. WAIS scholarship holders Ben Cureton, Ross Brown and Perry Ward helped Australia gain a mental edge over rivals Italy, by winning the lane qualification by under half a boat length.

The A Final will be competed on Sunday, with Italy again expected to be Australia’s main rival.