Australia hopes for medal haul as finals day arrives

By Rupert Guinness with the Australian Rowing Team in Europe

The Australian Rowing Team (ART) booked four more berths for Sunday’s A-Finals at World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Saturday with the Women’s Double Scull, Single Scull and Coxless Pair and Four all qualifying for the medal action on the Rotsee.

The five other ART boats racing in the A-Finals on Sunday after Friday’s competition are the Men’s Eight and Four and the Women’s Eights, Quad Scull and the PR1 Men’s Single Scull. This means Australia will have nine of its 13 crews fighting for Gold, Silver or Bronze medals.

 

Women’s Double Scull

Amanda Bateman and Harriet Hudson appear to be going from strength-to-strength. Their Semi-Final on Saturday in which they won was another step up.

Bateman and Hudson, coached by Ellen Randell, made the Semi-Final with a second place behind Ireland in Friday’s heats. On Saturday, they led the race from start to finish.

Behind Australia (6:56.33) in the race for a top three to make the A-Final was the United States (6:57.26) and China (6:59.46). The rest of the field finished in seven-plus minutes.

Bateman said their strategy was “similar to yesterday; get out hard, try and get in front and stay in front from start to finish. We blew out the cobwebs yesterday, our first international race together. Our approach today was to be a bit more confident in our middle km”.

“We know we have a fast start, but we wanted from that start to be really aggressive in our pushing through and establishing a lead on the field, and a good position,” Hudson said. 

“Once we got there, learning from yesterday, we have got to keep moving, keep going … that’s what we tried to do today, and I think we did a pretty good job.”

Hudson said their performances so far at Lucerne reaffirmed belief that their Olympic preparation was on track. However, training data of their physiological state and that of their boat speeds are only part of the tale. Nothing beats real live competition for a test.

“We do a lot in the ART. We race a lot against each other, and there are prognostics that come out from that,” Hudson said. 

“So, we saw some good times in Australia, but you never really ever know as we are a brand-new combination.”

So, is there more speed to come on Sunday?  After putting the question to Bateman, she smiled before replying: “There’s always more to come … stay tuned for tomorrow.”

 

In the Women’s Single Scull, two-time World Rowing Championship Bronze Medallist Tara Rigney (7:32.57) finished second to the Dutch World Champion Karolien Florijn (7:29.62). 

Rigney, also coached by Ellen Randell, showed great measure and confidence against Florijn.

She matched the Dutch sculler throughout the race to the point where at 1500m, only 0.55 separated them. 

It was in last 250m that Florijn surged away; whereas Rigney showed great maturity to not try to match her and let the race turn into a scrap for the win. She instead knew it would be best to keep her powder dry for when it really matters – in the A-Final.

 

In the Women’s Pair, Annabelle McIntyre OAM and Jessica Morrison OAM, coached by John Keogh, finished second in their Semi-Final. The race was won by the Netherlands (7:04.65).

However, the Dutch crew of Yymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester, who beat the Australians (7:06.47) for the Gold Medal in last year’s World Championships, had to fight hard for the win. 

They took the lead back in the last 500m from Australia who led after a fantastic middle 1000m. 

In Sunday’s A-Final, the John Keogh-coached crew will look to maintain that middle 1000m speed and something extra to take on the Dutch champions. With both crews learning more from each other in every race they do, the A-Final is sure to be a highlight. 

Meanwhile, Australia’s No. 2 pair of Olympia Aldersey and Lily Alton Triggs, coached by Hally Chapman, placed fifth (7:25.26) in the same Semi-Final; placing them in the B-Final.

 

In other races for Australia:

Women’s Four

The Four of Eliza Gaffney, Jean Mitchell, Jacqueline Swick and Molly Goodman, coached by Tom Westgarth, placed fourth in their Repechage to book a ticket to the A-Final.

They needed a top four finish from five boats in the race, and beat Chile well for that spot.

 

Men’s Coxless Pair

Australia’s No. 2 Pair of Rohan Lavery and Jackson Kench, the ART men’s ‘Spares’ crew, placed sixth in their Semi-Final, missing out on the A-Final as they needed a top three finish.

 

PR3 Men’s Pair 

In their second race in two days, Australia’s PR3 Men’s pair of Nicholas Bartlett and Tobias Goffsassen raced a two-up Final against the Ukraine who beat them in the Preliminary race. 

Ukraine (7:17.73), world champions in the boat class, again won from Australia (7:34.27), and with a bigger margin. But with the purpose of their entry being to expose them to more international racing, it was mission accomplished for the Australians.

 

WHAT’S UP FOR AUSTRALIA – World Cup II Day 3: Sunday

9.10AM (5.10PM AEST) – Women’s Pair B-Final: – AUS2 Olympia Aldersey, Lily Alton Triggs

Lanes 1-6: USA, AUS2, ESP, GBR, CZE, CHI

9.15AM (5.15PM AEST) – Men’s Pair B-Final: AUS2 Rohan Lavery, Jackson Kench –

Lanes 1-6: ITA2, USA2, NZL2, USA1,NZL1, AUS2

10.20AM (6.20PM AEST) – PR1 Men’s Single Scull A-Final: Erik Horrie OAM

Lanes 1-6: UZB, AUS, UKR, ITA, ISR, ESP

10.36AM (6.36PM AEST) – Women’s Pair A-Final: AUS1 Annabelle McIntyre OAM, Jessica Morrison OAM

Lanes 1-6: NED2, AUS1, IRL, NED1, GRE, USA1

11.02AM (7.02PM AEST) – Women’s Four A-Final: Eliza Gaffney, Jean Mitchell, Jacqueline Swick, Molly Goodman 

Lanes 1-6: NZL, USA, NED, GBR, CHN, AUS

11.15AM (7.15PM AEST) – Men’s Four A-Final: Tim Masters, Fergus Hamilton, Jack Robertson, Alex Hill OAM

Lanes 1-6: FRA1, NZL, USA, AUS, GBR, NED

1.19PM (9.19PM AEST) – Women’s Double Scull A-Final: Harriet Hudson, Amanda Bateman

Lanes 1-6: CHN, USA, IRL, AUS, NOR, NZL

1.46PM (9.46PM AEST) – Women’s Quad Scull A-Final: Rowena Meredith, Caitlin Cronin, Laura Gourley, Kathryn Rowan

Lanes 1-6: GER, SUI, GBR, NED, CHN, AUS

2.27PM (10.27PM AEST) – Women’s Coxed Eight A-Final: Katrina Werry, Lucy Stephan OAM, Samantha Morton, Georgina Rowe, Sarah Hawe, Georgia Patten, Bronwyn Cox, Paige Barr, Hayley Verbunt (cox)

Lanes 1-4: GBR, CAN, AUS, USA

2.40PM (10.40PM AEST) – Women’s Single Scull A-Final: Tara Rigney

Lanes 1-6: AIN, AUS1, NED, NZL, LTU2, GER1

2.58PM (10.58PM AEST) – Men’s Coxed Eight A-Final: Ben Canham Josh Hicks, Spencer Turrin OAM, Alexander Purnell OAM, Jack Hargreaves OAM, Jack O’Brien, Angus Dawson, Angus Widdicombe and Kendall Brodie (cox)

Lanes 1-5: NED, GER, GBR, AUS, USA

 

How to Follow the 2024 World Rowing Cup II:

This year the 2024 World Rowing Cup II will be taking place in Lucerne, Switzerland from May 24-26 2024.

A total of 234 crews from 43 nations will compete in 23 boat classes, in the hopes of earning points that will contribute to their countries overall standing in the series.

The World Rowing Cup medal races start on Sunday, May 26 at 10:05 CET.

Here is how to follow the event on mobile, tablet, or desktop:

1. The provisional time table for the events can be found here and entries for all the events can be found here.
2. Live race tracker and LIVE audio will be available for ALL races on www.worldrowing.com.
3. LIVE video streaming will be available on the World Rowing website on Sunday, May 26 from 10:00 for all World Rowing Cup boat class A-Finals. The video streaming will start 5 minutes before the first race.
4. Results for each day of racing can be found here.