Tassie rowers strike more gold at nationals in Sydney

Wonderboy Wigston boosts Tasmania’s gold medal haul to 12 at the Australian rowing championships in Sydney.

Lucas Wigston of The Friends’ School today won the schoolboys single scull title at the Australian Rowing Championships in Penrith, Sydney. Picture: SUPPLIED

HOBART  teenager Lucas Wigston has rocketed into contention for a spot on the Australian under-19 rowing team after winning the national schoolboy single scull gold medal on the final day of the regatta in Sydney.

Wigston, 16, claimed gold yesterday with a 2.33sec win in a hotly contested final, the win marking him as Australia’s fastest schoolboy sculler.

The win is even more remarkable as Wigston is in year 11 and the contest is open to compet­itors up to year 12 schoolboys, opening the door for the Friends School athlete to go back-to-back next year. Tasmanian Institute of Sport head coach Brett Crow said Wigston was also a strong contender for the Australian under-19 team with selection trials later this month.

“Lucas is a young rower with very good potential. He works hard so this is a really good result for him,” Crow said.

Tasmania’s lightweight wom­en’s quad scull crew of Anneka Reardon, Eve Mure, Hannah Tippett and Georgia Nesbitt took gold in the Victoria Cup. That bought Nesbitt’s personal tally to five gold medals for the week, and three for Mure.

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“It is very hard to win the Victoria Cup because most lightweight rowers target the event, so the girls have done a tremendous job to win a very tough race,” Crow said.

Tasmania finished the week-long regatta with 24 medals, 12 of them gold.

“It has been a fantastic event for Tasmania, especially with the number of gold medals that we’ve won,” Crow said. “It has brought the state really close together with everyone working together nicely, and that’s great.”

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