WAIS Rowers in Contention at World Champs
WAIS rowers competing at the World Championships in the Netherlands remain in contention, with Maia Simmonds earning progression into a final.
Racing on Tuesday, The Australian lightweight women’s quad scull had to finish in the top two of their heat to progress to the final, which they achieved, after finish behind the host nation crew who set the pace for the race.
The Australian crew consisting of WAIS athlete Maia Simmonds, along with Hannah Every-Hall, Sarah Pound and Laura Dunn moved with the Dutch throughout the race but couldn’t overhaul them in the race to the line with the Netherlands crossing first with a 34 stroke rate to Australia’s 36. The crew will now race for a medal on Friday 29 August in the World Championship final.
WAIS athlete and Australian lightweight men’s single scull representative Perry Ward, had a great race in the quarter-finals of his boat class. The Western Australian needed a top three finish to make the semi-finals, which the 26-year-old achieved after finishing in second place.
The sculler finished his race just 0.98 seconds behind Switzerland’s Michael Schmid who ultimately had the faster start than his Australian opponent. A review of the splits in Ward’s race showed the lightweight sculler was 2.62 seconds slower than Schmid in his first 500 metres, but then shaved time off the Swiss rower across each of the remaining splits.
Post-race, Ward said: “It’s great to have qualified for the semi-final, but it’s now about turning my attention to that semi-final race which is tomorrow. I’m pleased with how my race plan went and hopefully tomorrow will have a positive outcome too.”
The women’s coxed eight featuring WAIS duo Alex Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch competed in their delayed heat on Wednesday, in a loaded race including; Russia, Romania, France and Canada. It was always going to be a tough heat to win, especially with an inform Canadian Eight next to the Australians in Lane Five.
Canada dominated the race, winning by a clear margin ahead of Russia, while Australia and Romania battled it out for third and fourth position. Australia, coxed by Lizzy Patrick, led the battle for third place for the majority of the way, only to be pipped at the post by the Romanians who took the third place by just 0.08 of a second.
Canada won the race six seconds clear of Russia incidentally in an identical time as the United States in heat one (6:20:96). Australia’s time in comparison was 6:30:05.
– Rowing Aus