WAIS Rowing Duo Edged in a Photo Finish
The current strength of Australian rowing was underlined today as WAIS rowing duo Ben Cureton and Todd Skipworth missed out on the highly competitive final of the men’s pair at the 2012 Australian Rowing Championships at Champion Lakes Regatta Centre in Perth.
In cross head wind conditions on Day 4 at Australia’s newest rowing course, the repechage of the men’s pair featured 10 Australian representatives across five exceptional crews.
Only two crews had the opportunity to advance to the final and in the closest finish at the regatta to date, officials deliberated over the photo finish for 20 minutes before separating the crews.
With 500m remaining in the race, James Chapman (NSW) and Will Lockwood (VIC) held the lead over crowd favourites and lightweight world champions Ben Cureton (WA) and Todd Skipworth (WA), while the crews of Brodie Buckland (NSW) and James Marburg (VIC), Sam Loch (NSW) and Fergus Pragnell (NSW), and Matt Ryan (NSW) and Josh Booth (NSW) followed.
In the race to the line Marburg and Buckland ignited and reversed a five second deficit over the final quarter to pip Chapman and Lockwood by just 0.02 of a second.
Cureton and Skipworth were just a further 0.47 of a second back in third place but were forced to settle for a place in the B Final.
In the repechages of the women’s single scull Amy Clay (NSW) and Robyn Selby Smith (VIC) won their respective races, while in the men’s single scull equivalent, Australian men’s quad scull world champion Karsten Forsterling (VIC) won the first repechage, before Tom Larkins (VIC) secured the second race.
The first heats of the schoolgirls’ and schoolboys’ racing were also held on Day 4 as Australia’s most talented school age rowers had their chance to impress ahead of the final on the weekend.
The 2012 Australian Rowing Championships continued tomorrow with the highlights of day 5 action including the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s single sculls, as well as the finals of the under 19 and 23 single sculls and pairs races.
Earlier in the meet:
WAIS athletes Hannah Vermeersch (WA Rowing Club) and Alexandra Hagan (Swan River Rowing Club) underlined their favouritism in the under 23 women’s pair with a convincing eight second victory in heat 1 of the event.
The pair has only been rowing together for two months after Hagan made the switch from sculling to sweep oar rowing but their relative inexperience together was unnoticeable.
They raced to an eight second lead at the 1000m mark and then were able to ease off to hold the margin to win the heat in a time of 8:07.89 and progress to the semi-finals.
Vermeersch, a member of the Australian under 23 world championship team in the women’s four last year, said the chance to compete in Perth was fantastic.
“It’s really nice not having to pack your bags up and travel across the country and to have the home support it great,” Vermeersch noted.
“We’re pretty excited to see what we can do with this pair as we have only been training for it over the last two months.
“Our main goal for the week is to win the under 23 pair and see how much we can put between us and the other crews.”
Hannah Jansen (WAIS) stormed to victory in her heat of the under 23 lightweight women’s single scull to underline her chances in the event.
Jansen made her debut for the Australian senior A team at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia as part of the women’s lightweight quad scull and has continued her improvement since.
Jansen rowed solidly into the strengthening head breeze to cross the line in 9:17.49 and record close to an eleven second victory.
In other results on the first day of the 2012 Australian Rowing Championships, Madeleine Edmunds (QLD) set the quickest time in the heats of the under 23 women’s single scull, while reigning under 23 men’s single scull champion Nichael Barnier (ACT) won his heat in a photo finish.
Western Australian Institute of Sport duo Tom Gatti and David Watts were the standout performers in the under 23 men’s pair but will expect more of a challenge from a range of combinations in the semi-finals and final later in the regatta.
Stay tuned to www.wais.org.au next week for a full report on the WAIS results from the 2012 Australian Rowing Championships at Champion Lakes Regatta Centre in Perth.
Rowing Australia