ACT Rowing Association

Media Release


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
8th August 2007
 

ACT Rowers Perform well in Heats of World Junior Rowing Championships

 
Following a spectacular opening ceremony fitting of the first test event for the Beijing Olympics, the 2007 World Rowing Junior Championships got underway at the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing, China. The opening ceremony featured a flow of dancers, acrobats, puppets with a mixture of traditional Chinese themes and a small element of western dance input. Today, the junior rowers got down to business to fight it out over 2000m. Weather conditions helped to create glass-like water with an ever-so-slight head wind picking up as the day continued.
 
The ACT rowers performed well on day one of the Championships with Women’s Pair of Christabelle Northam and Veronica Tamsitt finishing third in Heat 2 from Lane 5.  The ACT pair got off to a great start just trailing the Bulgarians and narrowly ahead of the crew from Great Britain at the 500m mark.  The Germans out of Lane 3 had made a slow start but started to come into their own by the half way mark edging the Australians out of second and set after the Bulgarians who now had a strong lead.  The Germans stormed home to beat the Bulgarians with Northam and Tamsitt finishing a strong third.
 
The attention for Northam and Tamsitt will turn to tomorrows repechage races where they will line up against China, Great Britain, Canada and Portugal, with the first two advancing to the A Final.   The Girls will have a tough race drawing the same race as favorites China who where disqualified from their heat for an under weight boat.
 
ACT Junior Men Zac Cleaver and Nicholas Barnier teaming up with Queensland’s Angus Morton and Tasmania’s David Wright in the Junior Men’s Quad had a extremely strong performance finishing second in their heat.  The Aussie boys from Lane 6 had an extremely though task taking on event favorites Germany.  The boys stayed on the heals of the Germans but after the 500m the Germany crew started to show their might.  The Australians had then to fight off the Serbian crew who where pushing hard in third.  The Aussie boys pulled away in the last 500m to take second a head of the Serbs and a strong finishing Swiss crew.
 
The Boys will line up in tomorrows repechage beaming with confidence after such a strong heat result. They will line up against Norway, France, Austria and Belarus with the first two progressing to the semi finals.
 
To compete in the World Rowing Junior Championships, rowers must be 18 years or under.

Visit the official website of the International Rowing Federation www.worldrowing.com during the event to follow the live audio streaming, live results, race reports, interviews, photos and more.

An email from Coach Gordon Marcks

Hi all,
We have just completed the first days racing with lots more to go.
Results are on the web but for those who haven't seen them:
 
The girls finished in third position behind Germany and Bulgaria. A reasonable row overall but we certainly had a few things to take away from that in preparation for tomorrow's repechage. In de-briefing the race we identified that the start was a little off and the middle 1000 needed a little more focus and response to crews around us. Keeping these things in mind for tomorrow, we're confident of a better performance. We need to finish in the top two positions with the other countries represented by pairs from China, Great Britain, Canada and Portugal. Looking at the heat performances, we should have the measure of Great Britain and Portugal, and we are expecting a good race between us and the Canadians (with us rowing to plan we should be able to account for them as well) . Having said that though, there won't be any easy beats so there won't be any relaxing until the finish hooter. Interesting though was the Chinese pair who had a great heat win, later to be relegated to 6th after their boat was found to be under-weight!! Perhaps unfortunate for us that they ended up in our repechage but that's the rules.
 
I was able to follow the quad down and was really impressed with their row. They really stuck to their plan to finish 2nd behind Germany in what was close to the fastest heat of 4. They'll also have a repechage tomorrow in which they will need to finish in the top 2 for semis A/B. Their competition will be Norway, France, Austria and Belaruse. I haven't had a chance to check the form guide on that one but no doubt Regan will have the boys firing.
 
We've really enjoyed the time here. Everyone is extremely helpful and they make every effort to please.
 
Our hotel is approx 15mins from the course and a short walk to a few department stores and markets.
 
The course and the scale of the development around it are amazing. Even though still under construction, you can't but help think that those people lucky to attend next year's Olympics are in for one hell of a show.
 
Thanks for all the messages of support and more soon.
 
Gordo   08 August 2007