WAIS Rowers Still in Contention at World Champs

All WAIS rowers competing at the 2013 Rowing World Championships in Korea remain in contention despite a big scare for the Australian women’s lightweight double scull.

WAIS athlete Maia Simmonds competing with Victorian Alice McNamara suffered a disastrous start in their lightweight double scull repechage when an oar malfunction at the start – commonly phrased as a crab – caused the duo to lose several boat lengths against their rivals.

With only the top three crews in each repechage guaranteed a spot in the semi finals, Simmonds and McNamara produced a mid 1000m blitz to move from last back up to third before the Australians eased off to conserve energy ahead of the semi final stage.

U23 women’s four world champions Alex Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch combined with their fellow Australian competitors Charlotte Sutherland and Lucy Stephan to finish fourth in their heat and progress through to the final.

With the women’s four not an Olympic class, it does not attract large entries meaning, the Aussie girls who will all double up as members of the Australian women’s eight crew opted to race conservatively in their heat. They will compete from either lane 2 or 5 in the final.

There was a similar story for the men’s lightweight eight crew, with a third place finish in their heat enough for direct qualification into the A final. The Australian crew will race from lane 3 or 5. The crew contains WAIS scholarship holder Tim Widdicombe.

On day two of racing, Perry Ward and his men’s lightweight quad scull crew missed out on direct qualification for the semi finals after finishing fourth. The crew will progress to the repechage phase.

WAIS athlete Tom Gatti and the Australian men’s eight has yet to compete, whilst WAIS duo Alex Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch are yet to take to the heats of the women’s eight competition.