WAIS Junior Rowers Produce Medal Glut in France

Western Australian Institute of Sport rowers completed an impressive campaign at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Brive la Gaillarde, France over the weekend, capturing one gold, two silver and a bronze medal in a performance hailed an “outstanding achievement” by Rowing Australian High Performance Director, Andrew Matheson.

In warm conditions on a picturesque course, WAIS scholarship holder Hannah Vermeersch combined with Anna Kaszycki (QLD), Peta White (SA) and Jessica Molsher- Jones (SA) to capture gold in the women’s four, following a dominant performance in their final.

They were the quickest qualifiers for the final from their heat on the opening day and always looked in control of the final, leading from start to finish. The Australians broke out to over a second lead following the first 500m and extended their advantage through the middle part of the race.

The Australian girls – cheered on by their support crew – powered to the line, winning in a time of 6:48.18, three seconds clear of Great Britain with China claiming the bronze medal.

WAIS athletes Sam Collins and Joshua Hicks competed with Angus Moore (ACT) and Thomas Amies (QLD) to collect a silver medal in the final of the men’s coxed four.

Germany held control of the race, building to a three quarter boat length lead through 1000m, while Australia and Italy had a tussle all the way down the course, racing bow ball to bow ball over the closing stages.

Australia held a canvas lead over Italy with 300 metres remaining and fought bravely to hold off the notoriously fast finishing Italian crew on the line by just under half a second in a time of 6:22.44.

WAIS athlete and Bunbury resident Alex Hagan was part of the women’s quad scull boat that claimed silver in a time of 6:37.52. Having led through the first 1000m, Jessica Hall (QLD), Maddie Edmunds (QLD), Amy Fowler (ACT) and Hagan were unable to hold off the fast finishing Chinese crew who claimed the lead in the last 500m to record a win by 1.5 seconds over the Australian crew.

WAIS scholarship holder Tom Gatti helped the men’s four to a bronze medal in their final with Great Britain taking gold ahead of Romania in second place.

Daniel Brighthope (VIC), Michael Poulter (VIC), Thomas Chapman (TAS) and Gatti were in second place through the 1000m mark but were overtaken by the Romanians in the third quarter of the race. Australia crossed the line in a time of 6:08.29.

WAIS athlete David Prosser and team mates Louis Snelson (NSW), Cameron Smith (QLD) and Benjamin Morley (QLD) claimed third place in the B Final of the men’s quad scull having only missed out on the A Final by nine hundredths of a second in one of the strongest fields the junior world championships has ever witnessed.

In the B Final Australia held third place through all 500m splits to complete the race in a time of 6:06.71. This left them four second adrift of the Italian crew, with the Netherlands finishing second.

WAIS Rowing Performance Manager Antonio Maurogiovanni hailed the performance of the young crew in France and added these athletes could now push on towards U23 and senior ranks.

“The achievements of the WAIS juniors at the world championships in France, is clear confirmation of the outstanding number of national titles that the same rowers had wonlast March in Tasmania,” Maurogiovanni said.

“TheWAIS rowing program has concentrated and focused a great deal of energy and technical resources towards the future of Western Australian rowing, and whilst one will still be a junior next year, all will apply for a spot in the WAIS U23 squad,” he added.

“We have these five young talented medallists to reinforce the existing squad of talent over the next two or three years. Hopefully some of them will have the chance to go for 2012 Olympic selection. As Performance Manager, I’ll do my best to make sure that these young talents will make the life of the current seniors as difficult as possible,” said Maurogiovanni.

National High Performance Director Andrew Matheson said the results were great for Australian rowing.

“We sent our junior crews to Europe with an aim to be successful and to win four medals is an outstanding achievement,” Matheson said. “All of the squad have come a long way this year and have bright futures ahead of them.”