"VAN" (Sports Desk - 20.09.2022) :: The Women’s Four comprising of Lucy Stephan OAM, Annabelle McIntyre OAM, Kat Werry and Bronnie Cox, led their race from start to finish to comfortably qualify for the A/B Semi Finals. Post-race, Werry said, “We had a really strong start leading into the World Championships this week [in practice]. We are also happy with our middle 1000m. We will now take every race as it comes, just fine tuning our technique, we don’t have a whole lot to find it is just emphasising on what we are already doing well and building on that as the week goes on.”
Women’s Head Coach, John Keogh, commented and shared, “It was a good race today, getting your first race out of the way and having a good performance [at the World Championships] is important, and our Women’s Coxless Four had a good solid hit-out. We will review the race and look at where we can make some improvements for the Semi-Final.”
In the Men’s Coxless Four Heat, the quartet consisting of Alex Purnell OAM, Spencer Turrin OAM, Jack Hargreaves OAM and Olympian Jack O’Brien also led from start to finish but had to withstand a late charge from both the Polish and American crews. Our boys clocked the second fastest Heat time – 5 minutes 53.31 seconds – to qualify directly to the A/B Semi Finals.
Post-race, stroke Jack O’Brien said, “It was a good race and we really put everything out there. It is always good to win but we want to step forward for each race and will work on a few things over the coming days.”
The PR3 Mixed Four combination of Jess Gallagher, Al Viney, James Talbot, Tom Birtwhistle, and Cox Teesaan Koo won their Heat and qualified directly for the A-Final. They also recorded the fastest Heat time – 7 minutes and 12.58 seconds. Stroke seat Talbot commented after the race and said, “France was pretty good in our race, and they put some pressure on us after we led by a length for a good part of the race. We grounded it out, stuck with it and held them off.”
Viney also shared, “Our game plan is just to build on our consistency, ready for what we are going to come up against in the A-Final.”
Another consistent performer was Paralympic Silver Medallist and four-time World-Champion Kat Ross. Ross won her Preliminary race by over 22 seconds. After her race, Ross shared, “I focused on my own race today. My coach Renae and I discussed a race plan, and my goal was to execute it well.”
The Women’s Quad Scull of Kate Rowan, Olympian Amanda Bateman, and Olympic Bronze Medallists Rowena Meredith and Harriet Hudson went “toe to toe” with the Olympic Champions, China. Only half a second separated both crews in the last 500 metres, and our girls went for the win only to fall short by less than one second to finish in second position. However, the result means they directly qualify for the A/B Semi Finals.
Post-race, Hudson said, “Today’s race was a solid start to the regatta. We have a new line up with Amanda Bateman joining our crew. Our plan was to race aggressively against the Chinese crew and we did just that.”
Hudson further added, “A crew can always improve no matter where you are at in a regatta, and our plan now is to make some minor adjustments. We are really excited about our Semi-Final race on Thursday.”
Our Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls combination of Lucy Coleman and Anneka Reardon came third in their Heat and will now race in the Repechage in an attempt to qualify for the A/B Semi-Final. Their male counterparts – Oscar McGuinness and Redmond Matthews – secured Quarter-Final qualification by finishing second in the Men’s Lightweight Double Sculls Repechage.
In a Preliminary race, our PR3 Men’s Pair combination of Nicholas Neales and James Talbot raced in very tough and wet conditions to finish in fourth place.
The Women’s Pair of Georgie Gleeson and Eliza Gaffney finished fourth in their Heat and will now race a Repechage.
Racing continues Tuesday 20 September from 9.40am GMT+2/5.40pm AEST with the Heats of the PR1 Men’s Single Scull and the PR3 Women’s Pair, Repechages of the Lightweight Women’s Single Scull, Women’s Coxless Pair, Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls, and the Heats of the Men’s and Women’s Eight.
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