Australian Youth Olympic Festival News

Queensland Dominate First Finals, Favourite Beaten in Single Scull

Sydney International Regatta Centre, Penrith: Queensland dominated the first session of rowing finals at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival winning four of the six gold medals awarded. The finals contested were for men and women were the single scull, lightweight double scull and pair. Queensland won all three women’s races and also the men’s pair. The other two finals went to NSW in the single scull and Tasmania in the lightweight double scull. The wind had eased from the morning session with a light cross tail breeze blowing down the Olympic Course.

The first final was the women’s single scull, which resulted in a good win to Tara Kelly from Queensland. Kelly lead from the start to beat fellow Queenslander Suzanne Brown and Emma Van Dyken from Tasmania third. Kelly established an early lead from the start up by over a length at 500 gone. From there she built on the lead to win by two lengths. Kelly said after the race: "it felt pretty good the wind turned around in the end, I got out to a really good start and a got out there and managed to hold them off, it felt really good I just went for it." Silver medallist Suzanne Brown said "probably one of the hardest races I have ever rowed, I was in a lot of pain."

The men’s single scull resulted in an upset with the defeat of World Junior silver medallist in the single scull Eugene Arendsen by NSW sculler Nick Hudson. Hudson took the lead early and was chased by the other seven scullers right down the 2000 metre course. Keeping his rating up in the following conditions Hudson crossed the line in a very respectable 6.57.42 to defeat Arendsen by nearly two lengths. "It was certainly a hard race everyone took it out hard from the blocks, just take it out and get a speed up and the scull did the rest. I am pretty happy with the performance actually very happy." Said Hudson. Arendsen was not disappointed with his own performance: "Nick is real quick at the moment I did my best at the time and that is all you can ask for."

The men’s pair resulted in a quinella to Queensland. Sebastain Harper and Alex Aventisoff blasted away the opposition to collect the Gold. Aventisoff said: "It was a good race, we pushed it really hard through it, we are really happy with it. It is our first row over 2000 metres in a pair." Western Australians Brenton Jenke and Ryan Green endeavored to stay with the Queenslanders during the early part of the race, but they paid the price and were overtaken by the other Queensland crew of David Nelson and Peter Winkle for the silver medal.

The women’s pair was another Queensland win with by Sally Kehoe and Liz Brown taking Gold and Victoria the silver, just narrowly ahead of the NSW crew. Brown said "it was a pretty hard race we had everyone pushing at us. It is great to be a champion." Kehoe said the calls down the course were "push and hold, push and hold, do not give up."

The victory by Tasmanian Sam Wasley and Casper Hebblewhite in the men’s lightweight double scull continued the excellent development in the small Apple Isle. Hebblewhite who rows for Lindisfarne Club in Hobart dedicated his win to his former clubmate and Australian rower Tim Hawkins who was killed in the Bali bombing. "Timmy has been a big player in Tasmanian rowing, and if there is anyone we need to dedicate this one to it is definitely him."

The third and final session of rowing will be conducted on Saturday 11th January from 9.00 am to 11.10 am.

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