Olympic workout awaits The Hutchins School’s under-19 men’s coxed four rowers
A group of young Tasmanian rowers have earned the chance to learn from – and race against – Australia’s best Olympic rowers.
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A GROUP of young Tasmanian rowers has been selected to represent Australia after a string of impressive performances.
The five teenagers from The Hutchins School will head to Sydney in June to compete at the World Cup 3 Simulation Regatta where they will be representing Australia as the best under-19 coxed four in the country.
The selection was based on the team’s recent performances at the Australian National Championships at Lake Barrington, where the men won the under-19 men’s coxed four national title.
While other under-19 national crews will need to undergo gruelling selection trials in Canberra next week, the Hutchins rowers have already secured their place at the pre-Olympic event.
A national title win would normally result in the crew heading to Poland to compete in the World Junior Championships, but that event has been scrapped this year due to COVID-19.
The coach of the boys, Professor Andrew Palmer, himself a former Swiss international rowing coach, said although they won’t be at the World Junior Championships, the boys will still be learning from and competing against world-class athletes.
“It’s basically a pre-Olympic preparation regatta,” Prof Palmer said.
“They’ll be racing against Olympic crews from Australia, and potentially New Zealand, if COVID allows it.”
Professor Palmer said while his crew are not as big as most of their competition, their success was due to their gruelling work ethic and great technique.
“The boys train eight to 10 times per week with 5.30am starts and then also train twice on Saturdays,” Prof Palmer said.
“While the boys aren’t huge, they have better technique and fitness, and they aren’t carrying any excess weight – they’re very lean.”
The boys’ gruelling schedule also involves a specialised strength and conditioning program run by Hutchins’ director of rowing, former Geelong footballer Tom Allwright.
Prof Palmer said the level of support the boys receive from the school, their teammates, and their parents had helped them reach a level of excellence in endurance, strength and technique rarely seen in athletes of their age.
The World Cup 3 Simulation Regatta will allow the young men to train with and learn from Australia’s Olympic rowers for a few days before getting the chance to compete against them later in the week.
The regatta will be held in Penrith from June 3-6.
Tassie’s awesome foursome strikes gold at nationals
March 27
TASMANIA’S awesome foursome – Georgia Nesbitt, Kate Hall, Anneka Reardon and Eve Mure – claimed gold in a flurry of finals on the last day of the Australian rowing championships at Lake Barrington on Sunday.
The locals surprised even themselves by jumping to an early lead, and then held on to win the interstate lightweight quad in 7min11.47sec, more than four seconds ahead of second-placed Queensland.
After claiming her third gold medal, as well as a silver, at the regatta, Nesbitt said the crew could feel the support of the home-town crowd as they powered down the 2000m course.
“We’ve won it a couple of times over the past few years but it was big to win it at Barrington,” Nesbitt said.
“We could hear a lot of cheering. That was pretty cool.
“Everyone was stoked to win it here. It meant a lot to us.”
A solid head-wind made the going tough.
“The head-breeze made it seem like a long race so we needed to row well into that and make sure we kept it clean,” Nesbitt said.
“We were in front at the first 500m, which was a bit of a surprise because we didn’t expect to be out in front.
“We did a good job in keeping it together and keeping it clean, and that allowed us to move away more in the second kilometre.”
Buckingham’s crew of Courtney Blyth, Hannah Dobbie, Julie Janssens and Isabelle Higgins won gold in the women’s coxless fours.
Scotch Oakburn’s crew of Joseph Lawrence, Harry Birchmore, Will Gray and William Hurd (cox Harriet Lynch) won bronze in the schoolboys four.
The Hutchins crew (Jack Dalton, Hayden Mounter, Douglas Matson, Tom Bayley, Harry Sillifant, Oscar Newbury, Samuel Mounter, Benjamin Boman and cox Angus Whatling) won the B final of the schoolboy eight while Launceston Grammar (Angus Farquhar, Lachlan Pohan, Lachlan Dean, Archie Ralph, cox Grace Robertson) won the schoolboy four B final.
Sarah Hawe strikes gold at nationals (Saturday)
TASMANIA’S world championship-winning star Sarah Hawe struck gold at the Australian rowing championships at Lake Barrington on Saturday as part of a composite crew that claimed the Florence Eaton Trophy as teh national women’s eight champions.
Hawe, 33, of Huon Rowing Club, joined the Adelaide Composite/SASI/TIS combination that powered away from Melbourne Uni Composite-VIS and Uni Queensland/Sydney Uni to claim gold in 6min20.25sec.
Hawe’s medal will go into her collection alongside the coxless four world championship gold medals she won at Sarasota, USA, in 2017, and Ottensheim, Austria, in 2019.
It was some consolation for missing a medal in the open women’s pairs on Thursday.
Tasmania University Composite crew, made up of Sophie Robinson, Hannah Tippett, Kate Hall and Kate Oliver, claimed second in the final of the under-23 women’s four, with gold going to Uni Queensland Composite.
The North Esk Composite-TIS crew of Cormac Hayes, Lucas Wigston, Joseph Wilson and Finnian Colley claimed silver in the under-23 men’s four behind Sydney Composite-NSWIS/AIS
Buckingham Composite crew of Sarah Fahd, Katja Cook, Layla Hocking and Phoebe Teale won a bronze medal in the under-19 women’s four.
In the under-19 women’s eight, Scotch Oakburn finished seventh and Fahan eighth in a race won by University of Queensland.
Hutchins finished sixth in the under-19 men’s eight.
Scotch Oakburn finished sixth, Collegiate eighth, and Fahan eighth their semi-finals of the schoolgirls coxed eight and will row in the B final.
Friends claimed third and Hutchins finished fourth in repechage 1 of the schoolboys coxed eight, and the other Hutchins crew was fourth in repechage 2.
There will be 17 finals, nine A finals, nine B finals, four C finals and one D final on the last day of competition on Sunday.
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