Top take outs from the 2026 Australian Rowing Championships

By Rupert Guinness at the Lake Barrington International Rowing Course

With the curtain having fallen on the 2026 Australian Rowing Championships (ARC26) and Interstate Championships in Tasmanian, all eyes will turn towards selection of the Australian Rowing Team (ART) for the for the World Cup season.

The performances of Australia’s best rowers at ARC26 were exciting and inspiring, and reflected the depth and growth of Australian Rowing. It also showcased the impact on the sport by the 10 years of support from Rowing Australia Patron Mrs Gina Rinehart AO and Hancock Prospecting that was celebrated at Lake Barrington.

Closure to ARC26 also prompted us to catch up with Rowing Australia Head Coaches – Chris O’Brien (Men), James Harris (Women) and James Loveday (Para-Rowing and Olympic Beach Sprint) – for their top take-outs from the week.

Here’s what they had to say:

How did you feel about the national titles and the performances, and did they reveal any particular trait or trend or something you didn't expect?

Chris O’Brien

"For our National Training Centre athletes, these Australian Rowing Championships were an important step along the way to the upcoming selection trials for the Australian Rowing Team. The heats gave us a good indication of boat speed while the finals challenged the individual and collective skills in what were heavy conditions at Lake Barrington, made more challenging by the varying winds. The national championships are always important to the athletes racing. It’s great to see them fighting so hard for good results … A national title means a lot to any rower."

James Harris

"It was good to see some of the returning Olympians that are now in more full-time training do well … Tara Rigney in the single scull … Bronwen Cox, winning the pair was positive and Georgia Patten was second in the pair. It was good to see the ‘returners’ coming in and making an impact. Annabelle McIntyre [did not compete at ARC26] is coming back nicely [from back surgery]. She's not quite ready to race yet, but she’s doing a really good job building herself back. In general [at ARC26], it was good to see the attitude of the National Training Centre crews and the volunteers and kids all racing the nationals because it's been horrible in terms of the weather conditions, having to reschedule races. I thought everybody's done a cracking job, volunteers and rowers, to stay calm and deliver the racing when they were able to."

James Loveday

"The nationals are a good opportunity for our athletes to get side by side racing with with other Para athletes. What we were able to do here - under some challenging conditions – is see how our athletes were able to deliver individual performances. We saw that in the PR3 Men to Women's Single Scull and in the PR1 and PR2 events [on Saturday]. It's just demonstrating to us is that we've got a good group of highly skilled rowers capable of racing in different conditions. It'll be exciting to see what they can do in the trials. It's something that, with the world championships, Paralympics and World Cups, we need to be able to do. We do an outdoor sport, conditions change and we need athletes that can manage them and the stresses around them. We have a group of developing athletes learning that as we go along."

Was there anything you learned from the nationals that you now have a clear picture of?

Chris O’Brien

"I was impressed to see several athletes step up. The regatta is an important and prestigious one on its own. But our top rowers also know they have selection trials coming up. This regatta has helped them – and us - see where they are at. It’s also helped them sharpen the edges for what’s to come in the selection trials. Hopefully this adds to the quality of the mix at trials and gives us plenty to think about."

James Harris

"Whatever the conditions, the best rovers tend to win, would be my words. We went from fast tailwind [conditions] in the heats to extremely strong, tricky headwind in the finals and the best rowers, the strongest rowers can operate in any conditions."

James Loveday

"Whenever you race over 2000 metres in race environments, some people put their hand up and show where they're at. We don't have the number of people in those PR 1 and PR2 events to see what those races look like. But we have a pretty good national racing structure with the PR 3s where people get opportunity to put performances down and go against each other. There's a couple of people who've shown us where they are. We haven't had any information on them since we did a trial in December, on the water anyway. It was good to see how that played out."

On what we saw at ARC26, can you give an assessment of where the sweep and sculling programs are at? Did, ARC26 shed a new light on anything?

Chris O’Brien

"We have good options in the sweep and sculling programs. Among the scullers, it’s been great to see the battle between Marcus Della Marta, Jackson Free and Cormac Kennedy-Leverett in the Single Scull in both ARC26 and the President’s Cup race. For Marcus to win both events was very impressive. With the sweep squad, from what we’ve seen at training and in the nationals, the tightness of competition is still there and will make for some challenging but exciting decisions at the trials."

James Harris

"We've got an increase in depth in the sweep side of things. It was good to see. Last year we had three competitive pairs from the NTC all fighting it out. I'd say there was five or six this year. So, that's increasing the depth and the quality of the depth whilst we've still got a few [athletes] at home that are just on the mend. On the sculling side of things, it was good to see Tara [Rigney] back. It was also good to see some of the youngsters having a go, racing strongly against her … Sara Fahd led her until 400m ago [in the Single Scull Final]. It was good to see from a young developing athlete."

James Loveday

"We're in a good place. We ran some classifications and we're confident in the rowers we've got coming into the international season. We're going make steps towards adding a Four to the [international] program that we had last year. Cormac Hayes has come into the group [from his] terrible accident two years ago. He's raced well in the Interstate Single Scull [on Sunday] and won the PR3 men single [at ARC26]."

Did anyone impress for a late invitation to the ART selection trials coming up?

Chris O’Brien

"We are yet to finalise the invitations, but what I can say is that it was great to see several athletes strengthen their performance portfolio over the last week. You are never going to ignore form and performance. A strengthened portfolio is not going to do an athlete harm. It gives them every opportunity to be considered for invitation."

James Harris

"I think we have gone with everybody we've seen. From what you see in training, you can’t beat what you see in the racing and that was the case with nationals as well."

James Loveday

"With Para rowing, we always know who's in the wings. Because we must do the classification, we have a pretty good idea of where people are at. The big thing for people at these nationals was to take something that they needed to do in the classification in December or February, or at this event, and transfer it into racing."

Where are you right now with a view to what boats you hope will emerge from the selection trials as the ones to enter for the World Cup series?

Chris O’Brien

"I am open minded about what boats we look to select. The one absolute in my mind is that any boat we do chose to put on the water is of a competitive standard and to represent Australia strongly and proudly. Of course, that all depends on which athletes we feel are best suited individually and collectively to a specific boat as well."

James Harris

"We're looking to develop all the sweep boats and strengthen the three sweep boats we had last year … the pair, four and eight. On the sculling side of things, we want to be developing a crew boat as a priority … a quad or double. We'll see …"

James Loveday

"We'll look at look at Erik [Horrie] and the Single Scull. We'll look at the PR3 Double, and we'll look and see if we can get a PR3 Four out. We had Eric win a Bronze in the PR1 single, and we'll continue to push him up for podium level performances. We've got the PR3 Double that won a Bronze at the world championships to continue to push the standards on … We've got a new rower potentially coming into that. Most exciting is we've got a PR3 Four to look at do the international season."

Is there anything else you'd like to add in general about ARC26? A final word?

Chris O’Brien

"A tilt of the lid to everyone who took part ARC26 and the Interstate Championships. It was a huge week and the conditions everyone had to work with were challenging. But the calm and resilience – from rowers to coaches, clubs and regatta officials – helped make it an exciting, fun and successful week. It’s also a terrific platform from which Australian rowing can take off from with a view to the international season."

James Harris

"The main thing again, to the volunteers and the coaches, and the kids, that have had to juggle things … These were a seriously challenging nationals from a scheduling perspective. Almost every day was impacted in some way by weather and schedule changes or a power cut. But to still see everybody stay positive and do a cracking job for the rowers and have a good national championship regatta was terrific."

James Loveday

"People will now do senior selection trials to make the team [Australian Rowing Team] and get on our Olympic Pathway. With Olympic Beach Sprint sitting in that pathway, we'll have conversations to start directing rowers to the first Beach Sprint trial in May in Canberra. We'll do another Beach Sprint trial after World Rowing Championships. The big thing is making sure people in the flatwater program are not left out of beaches because they've got an international flatwater season in front of them. We're trying to run them where there’s opportunity for people to move between flat water and beach sprint and compete at a world championship at podium level in both events. So, after the Beach Sprint trial in May, we’ll set up for an event in Europe [the Filippi Lido Trophy, in Donoratico in Italy in 5-7 June.] When the World Rowing Championships are over, we'll have the National Beach Sprint Championships on the Gold Coast, another [beach sprint] trial, then do the Beach Sprint at World Rowing Coastal Championships in Qingdao, China in October."

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