After much excitement and social media chatter, the highly-anticipated combined international regatta – World Rowing Under 23 & Under 19 Championships – had finally arrived. Day 1 was all about our Under 23 Single Scullers, most notably Grace Sypher (LW1X), Laura Gourley (W1X) and Cormac Kennedy-Leverett (M1X).
The first race of the day was Heat 1 of the Women’s Lightweight Single Scull. Grace Sypher was racing in Lane 5 in some very hot conditions. She also was up against a tough field, which consisted of Greece’s Anastasiadou Evangelia and Great Britain’s Olivia Bates. Only the winner would go through to the Semi-Finals, and Grace was competitive in the first 700 metres of the race. At the 1000 metre mark, Greece took a commanding lead and was never threatened. Australia finished in fourth position and will race in the Repechage in mid-week.
Two hours later, Cormac Kennedy-Leverett from Queensland raced in Lane 4, Heat 4 of the Men’s Single Scull. Cormac was up against home-town hero, Italy’s Gennaro Di Mauro, and both scullers gave the crowd an exciting race. Even though the first four crews would directly qualify for the Quarterfinals, Cormac was determined not to lose and start the week on a winning note. In the second thousand metres of the race, he managed to comfortably push away from all his competitors to win by eight seconds (winning time: 6:53.80).
The final race of the day for Australia was the Women’s Single Scull. Only the top-two scullers would qualify for the Semi-Finals and Laura Gourley wanted to ensure she was part of that qualifying combo. The main threat in Laura’s Heat was 2021 World Junior Champion, Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland. Only half a second separated Laura and Aurelia in the first 1500 metres with Laura trailing in the first 1000 metres. In the last 500 metres, both scullers were comfortably in front of their competitors, but Laura wanted to make a statement and sprinted to the line to win her heat in a time of 7.41.01 – two seconds ahead of the Swiss champion. Laura will now race in the Semi-Finals later this week.
Deputy Performance Director, Jaime Fernandez OLY, said, “A good period of preparation at our home base in Gavirate and the AIS European Training Centre has set us up for a strong start on Day 1 of the World Championships. It is important to get off to a positive start and all three scullers certainly did that today. Conditions saw a good tail wind push the scullers down the course in fast times. Well done to both athletes and coaches today. We are looking forward to the remainder of our U23 group racing in their heats on Tuesday.”
Racing continues for our Under 23 athletes today (Tuesday 26th July 2022) and the first race – Men’s Double Scull – will begin at 915am (Italian time). Our Under 19 team will commence racing on Wednesday 27th July 2022.
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Results can be seen via the World Rowing website:
Follow the Rowing Australia social media channels for the latest updates, as well as photos and video coverage of the Australian Under 23 and Under 19 Rowing Teams.
Full Regatta Results (Day-1):
Women’s Under-23 Single Scull (U23W1X) – 1st, Qualified for the Semi-Finals.
Laura Gourley
Men’s Under-23 Single Scull (U23M1X) – 1st, Qualified for the Quarterfinals.
Cormac Kennedy-Leverett
Women’s Under-23 Lightweight Single Scull (U23WL1X), 4th, Repechage.
Grace Sypher
World Under-23 Crew Lists:
Women
U23W1X
Laura Gourley
Coach: Hally Chapman
U23LW1X
Grace Sypher
Coach: Lachlan Carter
U23LW2-
Kate Oliver
Sophie Robinson
Coach: Shaun Finlayson
U23W4+
Isabella Scammel
Samantha Morton
Emmie Frederico
Emma Wilson
Nicholas Dunlop (Coxswain)
Coach: Annabelle Eaton
U23W4-
Paige Barr
Jacqueline Swick
Eliza Gaffney
Genevieve Hart
Coach: Tom Westgarth
Men
U23M1X
Cormac Kennedy‐Leverett
Coach: Lincoln Handley
U23M2X
Alexander Wood
Harry Crouch
Coach: Alex Field
U23M4X
Marcus Della Marta
Lukas Matic
Xavier Hall‐Sullivan
Alexander Rossi
Coach: Alex Field
U23M4+
Nikolas Pender
Miller Eagle-Rowe
Fraser Miscamble
Harrison Fox
Hannah Cowap (Coxswain)
Coach: Matthias Ungemach
U23M4-
William Achermann
Nicholas Smith
Torben Ungemach
Charlie Batrouney
Coach: Matthew Ryan
U23M8+
Jamie Arnold
Angus Dawson
Marcus Emmett
Fergus Hamilton
Joshua Hill
Patrick Long
Alexander McClean
Darcy McCluskey
Harry Keenan (Coxswain)
Coach: John Bowes