Geelong rowers Zander and Tadhg Bailey eye Australian Rowing Championship success

Geelong rowers Zander and Tadhg Bailey will look to finish a strong season with national success in Tasmania. The identical twins open up on their bond, and their success so far.

Geelong twins Zander Bailey and Tadhg Bailey are hoping to medal at next week’s Australian Rowing Championships in Tasmania. Picture: Brad Fleet

Identical twins and Geelong rowers Zander and Tadhg Bailey believe a “built-in partnership” has its advantages when crewing together.

The brothers will be aiming to medal across four events at this week’s Australian Rowing Championships at Lake Barrington in northern Tasmania, starting Monday.

Going head-to-head in the under 17 single scull field, the Baileys will also team up for the schoolboy’s and under 17 men’s double scull, representing Western Heights College in the former and Corio Bay Rowing Club in the latter.

They’ll then join a composite for the under 17 men’s quadruple scull.

The brothers, who celebrate their 16th birthdays on Tuesday, placed fifth in the schoolboys double and sixth in the U17 double at last year’s nationals, while Zander, the younger of the twins by 10 minutes, also finished sixth in the U17 single scull.

When it came to the double, Tadhg said it was “nice to have a built-in partner” – a sentiment brother Zander agreed with.

“It’s nice because it’s more synchronised than probably other crews because we’ve always been doing sport together,” Zander said.

Following mum Deaarna into the sport four years ago, the two boys continue to put time and effort into improving their craft under the tutelage of Corio Bay coaches Jeff Watt and Ian Bridgland.

It saw the pair enjoy a strong Victorian championships campaign at Nagambie earlier this month, combining for gold in the school double scull, silver in a mixed quad and bronze in a A-grade double scull final, while Zander took out gold in the under-17 single scull over silver medallist Tadhg by mere seconds.

Tadhg said the competitive nature of the sport appealed most to him, while Zander said he liked to zero in on technique to “get it all perfectly right”, with both significantly improving their 2km times within the last 12 months.

“There is a lot of rowing talk at home,” Zander said.

The only two students to row competitively at Western Heights College, Zander encouraged other students to give it a go.

“Rowing’s a good sport, it’s good for fitness, cross training with other sport,” he said.

The Australian Rowing Championships start Monday and finish Sunday.

Originally published as Geelong rowers Zander and Tadhg Bailey eye Australian Rowing Championship success