NSW rowing championship stars, standout results, top school rowers, top clubs in 2024
Two schoolgirls crews stood out, Joeys young guns turned heads, teens announced themselves as stars and Olympians lived up to expectations at a talent-laden NSW rowing titles. Result wrap
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School girls crews from city and country schools stood out, Joeys young guns turned, a pair of teens confirmed themselves as future stars and an assortment of Olympians lived up to expectations at a talent-laden NSW rowing championships at Penrith.
There were great performances, shock results, upsets by interstaters and stellar racing as the NSW championships were transformed by a host of Olympians, Paris 2024 hopefuls and interstate crews opting to race in Sydney.
Sydney won both the medal tally and the pointscore at the NSW regatta ahead of Sydney University and UTS.
Schoolgirls from Kinross Wolaroi and St Catherines were standouts in the four and eight racing.
Kinross Wolaroi (S.Wilkin, E.Sweetapple, O.Searle, T.Wong, Cox: E.Caro) won in 7:44.62 ahead of Roseville (C.Griebel, E.Du Preez, G.Mackinlay, H.Alexander, Cox: J.Davies) in 7:48.52 and Kinross Wolaroi 2 (H.McKay, J.Scammell, X.Staniforth, S.Luelf, Cox: P.Martin) in 7:56.26
St Catherine’s, boasting a relatively new rowing program, had a sensational race in the schoolgirl eight.
The crew (B.Rupnik Williams, A.Steed, E.Stigter, M.Manins, I.Yardley, C.Baker, M.Swain, L.Gaston, Cox: J.Abela) won in 6:44.30 to inflict a heavy defeat on Pymble Ladies’ (M.Booth, A.Braysich, M.Cullinane, S.Olesen, M.Wood, M.Naito, E.Porter, H.Craig, Cox: C.Yemma) who came home in 6:50.91 and Loreto Toorak (Z.Kritikides, M.Bare, R.Currie, O.Carroll, N.Thomas-Leech, A.Fairchild, C.Grant, M.Richards, Cox: L.Marsh) in 6:53.48.
The schoolboy eight race was closer than expected but favourites, St Josephs, held on to win.
It was the performance of Riverview that had people talking with the crew showing vast improvement this season and closer than expected to the favourites as they finished second.
“It’s going to make it very interesting for the GPS Head of the River,’’ said NSW Rowing’s Elliot Shackcloth-Bertinett.
St Josephs (D.Williams, M.Moloney, M.Dooley, A.Negline, T.Moloney, G.Ciesiolka, S.Basha, F.Mitchell, Cox: J.Yates) won in 5:59.51 with St Ignatius 1 second (S.Zukerman, J.Holmes, A.Brown, A.Hennessy, M.Hyles, H.Davis, A.McGrath, G.Field, Cox: H.Burton) 6:00.93 and Scotch College third (A.Bruce, A.Marro, L.Green, G.Clifford, M.Boykett, A.Moloney, J.Collingwood, H.Pernell, Cox: T.Findlay) 6:06.20.
The women’s eight racing provided some of the best entertainment of the meet when Sydney Rowing, with gun Harriet Hudson aboard, led until the final hundred metres or so.’’
“It looked like they were going to break a 22 year drought,’’ said Shackcloth-Bertinetti.
“Then they got overtaken right at the end by Melbourne.’’
Melbourne University (R.Cantwell, J.Wilcox, J.Mitchell, E.Gaffney, L.Foley, S.Marriott, A.Bateman, L.Stephan, Cox: J.Rook) won in 6:21.99 from Sydney (G.Sypher, I.Furrer, C.McManus-Barrett, E.Crocker, S.Morton, I.Scammell, S.Hawe, H.Hudson, Cox: N.Dunlop) 6:23.26 and Sydney University 1 (T.Botha, T.Caudle, O.Nattey, R.Meredith, Z.McKellar, E.Sheppard, E.Price, G.Gleeson, Cox: E.Bolster) 6:35.08.
In an interesting turn of events Ballarat Clarendon pulled off an upset in the men’s U19 coxed four racing to lead home a Victorian one-two and a medal-less podium for NSW.
Ballarat Clarendon (S.Hall, M.Mason, J.Forsyth, C.McClure, Cox: R.Belcher) finished in 6:29.79 ahead of Brighton Grammar (S.Kirkham, O.Goodger-McGrath, P.Hanley, H.Pollock, Cox: J.Lorback) 6:34.63 and Canberra Grammar 1 (D.Outram, C.Schmidt, H.Budd, N.Van Der Walt, Cox: T.Robson) 6:38.20
In a strong result for Sydney’s Queenwood school, their U19 coxed four beat club crews from the UTS, Adelaide and Queensland in an impressive performance.
Queenwood (B.Cuttance, Z.Taylor, G.Mclaren, A.Roles, Cox: M.Yin) finished in 7:12.72 and ahead of UTS/Sydney (S.Bebbington [SRC], O.Kelly [SRC], S.Morgan [UTS], A.Steed [UTS] and Cox: J.Abela [UTS]) in 7:19.28 and Uni of QLD/Adelaide (F.Bishop [UQBC], F.Rosenbauer [ADEL], I.Scheimer [UQBC], A.Mulholland [UQBC], Cox: A.Dodd [UQBC] in 7:25.50
Another great race at the championships was under 23 world champion Isabella Scammel and Caitlin McManus-Barrett’s win in the Under 23 pair.
The duo scored a massive seven second victory in this race.
Sydney (I.Scammell, C.McManus-Barrett) won in 7:34.69 from Swan River/Fremantle
(G.Hart [FRC], R.Pretorius [SRRC) 7:41.87 with Sydney University (O.Nattey, G.Turner) third in 7:55.17
Rising stars Lucy Yabsley and Will Rogers also turned plenty of heads at the NSW championships where around 2500 rowers raced from Friday to Sunday.
The pair both won their under 19 single scull races in impressive displays.
“Will is quite a talent and his power to weight ratio is excellent,’’ said Shackcloth-Bertinetti.
Kings rowers Rogers (7:21.57) beat Mosman’s O.Scheel Gamborg 7:25.03 and Griffith Uni Surfers Paradise’s L.Free (7:25.61).
“Both won their races form unfavourable lanes as well,’’ Shackcloth-Bertinetti said.
Glebe’s Yabsley won in 8:19.41.
Others big results on the weekend includes Tokyo Olympian David Bartholot winning the men’s single in which Marcus Della Marta finished third.
Della Marta, who is returning to rowing after an extended break, then won his first ever eight race later as a member if the victorious Sydney Uni crew which included Olympic champions Jack Hargreaves and Alex Purnell.
Sydney University (M.Britt, M.Della Marta, H.Hobbs, W.O’Shannessy, J.Kench, A.Purnell, J.Hargreaves, J.O’Brien, Cox: W.Raven) 5:46.41 held off arch rivals, Melbourne University (T.Foley, W.Achermann, F.Miscamble, C.Batrouney, H.Wynn-Pope, S.Keenan, B.Canham, R.Lavery, Cox: L.Burnell) 5:47.64 with Sydney (A.Hoskin, T.Cregan, B.Graham, H.Crouch, S.Turrin, A.Nichol, A.Wolf, J.Hicks, Cox: K.Brodie) third in 5:49.48.
Looking to the future, the women’s Under 21 Eight was won by Sydney University (N.Vance, C.Hartin, Z.Bond, M.Wood, J.Colbran, A.Fikkers, A.O’Brien, I.Grey, Cox: C.Jureta) from UTS/Sydney (B.Rupnik Williams [UTS], J.Bliss [UTS], E.Stigter [UTS], M.Manins [UTS], I.Yardley [SRC], C.Baker [UTS], M.Swain [UTS], L.Gaston [UTS], Cox: S.Castellas [UTS]) and Uni of QLD (A.Thomas, E.Bridgefoot, E.Russell, R.Dollar, G.Montague, L.McFarlane, A.Ready, T.Hutton, Cox: P.Russell).
The men’s Under 21 Eight was taken out by Sydney/Adelaide (N.Whalan [SRC], J.Kenny [SRC], A.Holland [ADEL], W.Rogers [SRC], A.Hoskin [SRC], M.Bucknell [SRC], I.Thurnham [SRC], C.Hine [SRC], Cox: M.Jones [SRC]) from UTS (O.St Pierre, J.Power, W.Clubb, B.Smith, O.St Pierre, J.O’Meara, J.Lynch, J.Wilson, Cox: R.Taylor) and Uni of QLD/Sydney University (T.Stevens, S.Forbes, M.Owen, F.Harris, D.Cashman, M.Cashman, L.Tucker, M.Martin, Cox: T.Shaw).
NSW ROWING CHAMPIONSHIP MEDAL TABLE TOP 10
Name, State, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Total
Sydney NSW 12.125 3.75 6.875 22.75, 2 Sydney University NSW 8.5, 5.25 4.25 18. UTS NSW 6.25 8.5 3.875 18.625, Mercantile VIC 4.875 3.5 3.25 11.625, Uni of QLD, 4.254 5.25 13.5, Melbourne University VIC 4.25 3.25 3.25 10.75, Kinross Wolaroi NSW 4 7 2 13, Commercial QLD 4 1 2 7, 9 Glebe NSW 3.25 0 0 3.25, Adelaide UniSA 2.75 1 0 3.75.
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