By Rupert Guinness with the Australian Rowing Team in Europe
The Australian Men’s Quad Scull led the charge in a successful opening day for the Australian Rowing Team (ART) in the Final Olympic Qualifying Regatta (FOQR) in Lucerne, Switzerland, by winning its heat to qualify directly for Tuesday’s final.
The FOQR is the last opportunity for nations to qualify in one of the 14 Olympic boat classes ahead of the Paris Games.
Australia has already qualified in nine of 14 Olympic boat classes, but the ART has come to Lucerne to try and qualify four more boats; the Men’s Quad Scull, Men’s Double and Single Scull, and the Women’s Lightweight Double Scull.
Day one of the regatta saw mostly pristine and still waters on the Rotsee. All crews raced heats to qualify for their next round of races, however to qualify their boat for the Olympics, they must all finish in the top two of the finals that will be held on Tuesday.
In the Men’s Quad Scull heats where only first place directly qualified for the final, the Australian crew of Caleb Antill and Jack Cleary – both 2021 Tokyo Olympic Bronze Medallists in the Quad Scull - Campbell Watts and Alex Rossi won to book an express ticket.
Australia won Heat 2 in 5:48.92s, just pipping fast-finishing Estonia (5:49.70), followed by France (5:51.69), China (5:56.96) and Spain (6:28.19). Australia’s time was also marginally slower than Heat 1 winners Norway (5:48.68).
“We’re going to build up … happy, but not satisfied,” Cleary said. “We’re here to rip it and show the world what we’ve got.”
Australia took charge from the start as planned. “Like any piece, we built it from stroke one,” Cleary said afterwards. “We trust our raw speed and we set out to control the race.”
The approach paid dividends. By the 1000m Australia, racing in lane five, were in control just as they had planned, even though Estonia, on the other side of the course in lane one, had by then pushed into second place before closing in on Australia in the middle 500m. But the Australians rallied after Rossi in the stroke seat ramped up the rate to fend off the threat.
“Caleb has the reigns,” Rossi said. “It’s up to him to call it when he thinks it’s necessary. I’m ready to go as early as he says. He called it at the right moment and that’s all we needed.”
In the other events for Australia:
The Australia Men’s Double Scull of Marcus Della Marta and David Bartholot (pictured below) placed second in the second of three heats, with their event won by Serbia in 6:25.20 after also leading from start to finish.
With the first three qualifying directly for Monday’s A/B Semi-Final, Australia finished at 3.06s to Serbia in 6:28.26. Third was Japan (6:36.96), followed by Cuba (6:40.88) in fourth.
In the Men’s Single Scull with 30 entries, Oscar McGuinness qualified for the Quarter Final with third place in Heat 3. The ex-lightweight rower now races in Monday’s quarter-finals.
McGuinness, racing in lane four, rowed confidently throughout his race won by Great Britain’s George Bourne in 6:56.73. Second was Spain’s Daniel Gutierrez Garcia in 7:00.41, while McGuinness finished in 7:13.52, easing up over the last 500m with his position secure.
In Heat 2 of the Women’s Lightweight Double Scull won by Greece in 7:01.13, Anneka Reardon and Georgia Miansarow raced impressively to finish second in 7:05.73.
With only Heat winners going into the Final, Australia’s second place means they will have to race in Monday’s repechage, where they must finish in the first four to make the final.
WHAT’S UP NEXT FOR AUSTRALIA - Day 2 (Monday):
9.12AM (5.12PM AEST) – Men’s Single Scull Quarter-Finals: Oscar McGuinness
10.18AM (6.18PM AEST) – Men’s Double Scull Semi-Finals: David Bartholot, Marcus Della Marta
10.48AM (6.48PM AEST) – Women’s Lightweight Double Scull Repechage: Anneka Reardon, Georgia Miansarow
Images: Vera Bucsa