Monday 23 June
Double bronze for Australia at final Olympic warm up
Two Australian rowing crews have won bronze medals at World Cup 3, the final international regatta before the Olympics, in Poznan, Poland.
The 2007 World Champion in the Women’s Lightweight Double Scull, Amber Halliday and Marguerite, raced with confidence across the weekend to finish third in their final, while the Men’s Lightweight Four crew of Todd Skipworth, Anthony Edwards, Ben Cureton and Rod Chisholm also finished third in a world class field/
Halliday and Houston, who are following a racing plan that will see them peak in just over a month’s time, qualified directly for the final from their heat on Friday and secured a middle lane in the process. In the final they settled in third place through the first quarter of the race and were unable to reel in Canada and Germany and finished in a time of 7:29.80, two seconds behind the winning Canadians.
The Men’s Lightweight Four were also very impressive in their final warm up event before Beijing and were contenders in a final that featured five crews competing in the World Championship final last year.
France led from Australia through the first stages of the race before the Australian crew, stroked by Todd Skipworth, drew level and passed the French at the halfway mark. Over the last 500 metres of the race the French re – established their margin and held on to win the race in a time of 6:08.76, while Australia was pipped by the fast finishing Italians by two hundredths of a second.
In other results, the Men’s Lightweight Double Scull crews of Sam Beltz and Tom Gibson won the B Final, while the reserve pair of Terrence Alfred and Karsten Forsterling finished 4th in the A Final of the Men’s Pair.
Australia’s 14 qualified crews will now be nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee for selection on the Olympic Team. They will continue their preparations over the next month in Australia before all converging on Penrith for a pre – Olympic training camp at the end of July.
For race reports please visit www.rowingaustralia.com.au.
For more information please call
David Polglase on 0401 453 041
