WAIS Lightweight Rowers Claim World Championship Gold
The Australian lightweight men’s four crew of Todd Skipworth (WAIS), Ben Cureton (WAIS), Sam Beltz (TAS) and Anthony Edwards (TAS) has won gold at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia.
The gold medal was Australia’s first in the boat category since 1981, a period in which three silver medals and one bronze medal had been won.
The victory was extra sweet for Australia’s lightweight veteran Anthony Edwards, 38, who during his career had picked up a combined total of seven Olympic and world championship silver and bronze medals, but never gold.
Edwards said the gold medal was a dream come true.
“It’s absolutely the sweetest thing you could ever get,” Edwards said. “I knew this would be my last go at a world championships but I knew we had the speed.
“I had a look a stroke to go before the line and knew we had it. We had pure confidence in each other and knew that if we got it right anything could happen.
“We can now knuckle down before next year with our coach Brett (Crow) and plan our campaign for London.”
The crew had only made one change from the silver medal winning boat from 2010, with dual Olympian and WAIS scholarship holder Ben Cureton coming into the three seat, and following a good performance in the semi-final, Australia had confidence for the final.
Australia was in second place at the halfway mark but had Italy firmly in their sights and following a flying third 500m surged to the front.
They crossed the line in a time of 5:55.10, over a second clear of Italy and embraced each other in the boat to celebrate the victory. Great Britain claimed the bronze medal.
Stroke of the crew and WAIS athlete Todd Skipworth said a gold medal capped off the season.
“You always know the margins are going to be tight in lightweight racing and we had a fairly distinct plan and wanted to push that third 500m hard,” Skipworth said. “We knew we were fit enough to make a few crews hurt and we nailed the race plan.
“Last year was a surprise with the silver medal as we had only just got back together, but we worked really hard this year and to win the gold is something special.”
The lightweight men’s eight snatched gold on the line from Italy, while the men’s four won bronze to leave Australia with ten medals across the eight day regatta, including three gold, four silver and three bronze.
It eclipses Australia’s eight medals from last year and included a crucial five Olympic class and two Paralympic class medals in a strong sign of intent ahead of the London Games next year.
The lightweight men’s eight trailed Italy until the closing stages of the race before a last ditch push on the line led them to a 0.16 of a second victory in a time of 5:44.57.
Coxed by David Webster (VIC), the crew of Blair Tunevitsch (TAS), Tom Gibson (TAS), Alister Foot (TAS), Rod Chisholm (NSW), Nick Baker (TAS), Darryn Purcell (QLD), Tom Bertrand (VIC) and WAIS scholarship holder Ross Brown (WA) won Australia’s first gold medal event in the discipline since 1997.
Webster said the result was too close to tell on the line.
“To be honest when we hit the line I thought we might have been behind,” Webster said. “We gave them a bit going into the last 500m but produced a great finish.
“When the result came up on the screen it was incredible and the end of a lot of hard work from the boys.”
The lightweight women’s quad scull of Ella Flecker (TAS), Maia Simmonds (WA), WAIS athlete Hannah Jansen (WA) and Alexandra Hayes (WA) finished sixth in their A Final, but with an average crew age of 22 they remain an exciting prospect for the future as Australia continues to build its depth in lightweight women’s rowing.
Australia will have the chance to improve on its current medal haul when it contests three A Finals on the final day of the regatta. Australia will chase medals in the men’s four, lightweight women’s double scull and lightweight men’s eight.
Australia has qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games 10 of the 11 crews it sent to the world championships, while both Paralympic crews also achieved qualification for London next year.
-Rowing Australia