By Rupert Guinness with the Rowsellas in Shanghai
The Australian Men’s and Women’s Eights both secured places in the A-Finals of the World Rowing Championships at Shanghai in China on Thursday.
The Australian PR3 Mixed Double Sculls crew, one of six to race on Day Five, also won their Heat convincingly to go into the Semi-Finals on Friday.
However, the success of the Men’s and Women’s Eights to make their A-Finals on Saturday means that Australia now has at least four boats in medal races.
In the Women’s Eights the Australian crew of Hayley Verbunt OLY (Cox), stroke Paige Barr OLY, Jaime Ford, Laura Gourley OLY, Zara Collisson, Ella Bramwell, Sophie Houston, Katherine Easton and Georgie Gleeson placed third in the first of two heats.
Racing in Lane 3, they had to fight back from fourth place behind Romania, the Netherlands and then Canada to secure their place.
The heat was won by Romania (6:23.65) from the Netherlands (6:27.10) and then Australia (6:29.02), while Canada finished fourth (6:36.58).
The first two boats automatically qualifying for the A-Final. So, Australia’s place in the A-Final was secured by being one of the first two next fastest finishers from the heats.
The second heat was slower, with Great Britain (6:27.72) winning from Germany (6:29.42), the USA (6:30.73), Italy (6:31.69) and Poland (6:44.73).
Australian Eights coach Xavier Dorfman gave the thumbs up to his crew, of which four of the nine are World Championship debutants.
“I am proud of what the girls did today. They respected the race plan perfectly. They have managed themselves well,” Dorfman said.
“It was not an easy race, and they got the second fastest second thousand metres.”
“The Eight is going much better. We will continue going in that direction to the Final.”
In the Men’s Eights Heats, the Australian crew of Nicholas Dunlop (Cox), stroke Patrick Long, Angus Dawson OLY, Alex Nichol, Harry Manton, Marcus Emmett, Jack Robertson OLY, Alexander McClean and Mitch Salisbury also placed third to earn their A-Final ticket.
The Australians, of whom seven of the nine in the crew are world championships debutants, started well and led at 500m over Poland, Great Britain, Italy and Romania.
Great Britain took the lead from Australia by 1000m, and at 1500m both crews held those places. But in the third 500m Italy charged through to pass Australia.
Great Britain (5:41.07) won from Italy (5:41.83) in second and Australia (5:43.29) third.
The Australians did not finish in the top two for an automatic A-Final berth, but they and the Poles still made the medal race as the next two fastest boats from the two heats.
“It was a good first hit out,” Australian Men’s Eight coach Nicolo Maurogiovanni said.
“We have been here 11 days now, and it was good to get one [race] under our belts and see where we are at and figure out what’s next and how to improve.
“It is making sure we do everything right from a technical standpoint in the middle of the race, to have somewhere to go, doubling down on what we know gives our speed.”
In the PR3 Mixed Double Sculls Heats, Lisa Greissl and Sam Stunnell led from start to finish. The Australians (7:49.49) beat Brazil (8:00.29) and Uzbekistan (8:05.15).
The first two placegetters and next six fastest finishers of three heats made the Semis.
Greissl and Stunnell, who are both racing in their first world championships, were extremely happy with their result and their performance.
“We have trained really hard and built a lot of confidence through our training. So, to go out there and execute so confidently was awesome,” Greissl said.
Stunnell concurred: “It was comfortable. We were very happy with how we executed things. We were able to get out in front early which really helped set up our race.
“We could keep an eye on things, control it and execute exactly what we wanted.”
In other races on Day Five:
The Men’s Double Sculls Semis saw Oscar McGuinness and Mitchell Reinhard place sixth in their semi-final. They missed the A-Final but will race in Friday’s B-Final.
In the Women’s Pairs B-Final: Taylor Caudle and Eleanor Price placed fifth for a world championship ranking of 11th.
In the Men’s Quadruple Sculls B-Final: Nicholas Blackman, Johnson Daubney, Jackson Free, Alexander Rossi also placed sixth for a ranking of 12th.
Australian Crews Racing Tomorrow – Day 6
14.35 (AEST) - Women’s Single Sculls Semi-Final 1: Romy Cantwell
15.10 (AEST) - PR3 Mixed Double Sculls Semi-FInal 2: Lisa Greissl, Sam Stunnell
15.37 (AEST) - Men’s Double Sculls B-Final: Oscar McGuinness, Mitchell Reinhard
15.45 (AEST) - Women’s Fours B-Final: Emmie Frederico, Georgina Rowe, Jacqueline Swick
16.20 (AEST) - PR1 Men's Single Sculls A-Final: Erik Horrie
17.19 (AEST) - Men’s Fours A-Final: Nikolas Pender, Fergus Hamilton, Austin Reihehr, Alexander Hill
How to Follow the 2025 World Rowing Championships
Here is how to follow the event on mobile, tablet, or desktop:
The provisional time table for the events can be found here and entries for all the events can be found here.
Live race tracker and LIVE audio will be available for ALL races on www.worldrowing.com.
LIVE video streaming will be available on the World Rowing website, Foxtel, and Kayo Sports from Sunday September 21 from 12.00 AEST. The video streaming will start 5 minutes before the first race.