By Rupert Guinness with the Rowsellas in Shanghai
Racing in the Australian crew that drew Lane 1 for the A-Final, was coxswain Nicholas Dunlop and rowers Patrick Long, Angus Dawson OLY, Alex Nichol, Harry Manton, Marcus Emmett, Jack Robertson OLY, Alexander McClean and Mitch Salisbury.
Their race show was a positive show of potential for such a young and inexperienced crew, of which seven of the nine were racing in their first World Championships.
The Netherlands (5:27.67) won from Great Britain (5:29.93) and the USA (5:30.09), followed by Australia (5:34.77), Italy (5:35.88) and Poland (5:37.35).
Racing in mid-30s temperatures, the Australians threw everything into their race off a strong start that still had them just off medal pace at 1000m. In the third 500m they just slipped off the pace but then fought well to fend off the fast-finishing Italians.
“We made a plan and executed exactly on that plan,” coach Nico Maurogiovanni said.
“That was the best race we could do right now at this moment with this group of guys.
“I’m pretty bloody proud of them and they should be proud of themselves.”
The Men’s Eights A-Final was the second medal race for the Rowsellas on Day 7 of the world titles that finish on Sunday.
In the Women’s Eights A-Final, the Australian crew of coxswain Hayley Verbunt OLY and rowers Paige Barr OLY, Jaime Ford, Laura Gourley OLY, Zara Collisson, Ella Bramwell, Sophie Houston, Katherine Easton and Georgie Gleeson finished sixth.
The Netherlands (6:08.10) won Gold from Romania (6:10.83)) and Great Britain (6:12.66), followed by Germany (6:12.83), the USA (6:16.09) and Australia (6:19.01)
Coach Xavier Dorfman was circumspect about his crew’s performance afterwards.
“It was frustrating because we are sure we can do better than this,” Dorfman said.
“The positive is that I still believe we have the potential to be one of the best in the world.”
Despite missing out on medals, getting both young and inexperienced Eights into their A-Finals was a positive outcome with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in mind.
After the Men’s Four fifth place in Friday’s A-Final and the Women’s Four first in their B-Final, Rowing Australia has a strong pool of talent to work with moving forward.
The same can be said of the Rowsellas’ preparation for the 2028 Paralympic Games after Erik Horrie won the Bronze medal in the PR1 Men’s Single Sculls on Friday and Lisa Greissl and Sam Stunnell qualified for Sunday’s PR3 Mixed Double Sculls A-Final.
With 29 of the Rowsellas’ 41-strong team at Shanghai being World Championship debutants, the team will now be better for the journey towards Games success in 2028.
The team will also return home from Shanghai with 22 athletes having had the experience of racing in Olympic class A-Finals and three more in Paralympic events.
Australian Crews Racing Tomorrow – Day 8
13.15 (AEST) - PR3 Mixed Double Sculls A-Final: Lisa Greissl, Sam Stunnell
14.05 (AEST) – Women’s Single Sculls B-Final: Romy Cantwell
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.