Archive for month: March, 2013

The 2013 Australian National Championships was a great success for all of the ACT’s clubs and schools that competed. Every program had a good regatta but particular highlights included wins for Canberra Girls Grammar in the Women’s Under 17 Coxed Quad Scull and ANUBC in the Men’s Club Double. Notable second places for Canberra Rowing Club in composite crews in the open fours and lightweight quad provided an excellent reward for Canberra RC’s superb efforts in the local competition, indicating the club can still be among Australia’s elite.

All of the ACT school programs had some success at this year’s nationals however special mention must be made of the efforts of Marist College, our youngest club, who participated in their first ever Australian Rowing Championships and made the A final of the Men’s Under 17 Coxed Quad Scull.

Having saved the best for last special mention must be made of Angus Moore of CRC. Angus achieved Gold in the Men’s Under 23 Coxless Pair and a great Silver in the Opens Men’s Fours, beating the bow and stern fours form the US men’s eight . Then on the final day of competition Angus raced for Australia in the first round of the Samsung World Cup. An incredibly close race Moore’s crew finished ahead New Zealand and Great Britain beaten only by a fellow Australian crew which included James Chapman and Joshua Dunkley-Smith both of whom rowed in the silver medal winning Men’s Four at the London Olympics.

GOLD

•Angus Moore (CRC) –Under 23 Men’s Pair
•Jessica Baldwin, Taylor Caudle, Elizabeth Tridgell, Caitlin Gwynn-Jones, Jasmin Robertson (c) (CGGS) – Women’s Under 17 Coxed Quad
•Dylan Conolan, David Wright (ANUBC) – Men’s Club Double

SILVER

•Angus Moore (CRC/ Racing for Australia) – WORLD CUP Men’s Coxless Four
•Angus Moore (CRC) – Open Men’s Four
•Michael Cusack, Matt Buchtmann (CRC) – Club Men’s Double Scull
•Jo Gubler (CRC) – Open Men’s Lightweight Quad Scull
•Nicholas Saunders, Ethan Zissler, Giles Widdicombe, Jonathan Lindsey, Geoffrey Sims (Cox) (CGS) – Men’s Under 17 Coxed Quad
•Stephanie Miniter, Brittany Staniforth (CGGS) – Under 19 Women’s Coxless Pair
•Bonnie Andrews (ANUBC/CGGS) – Schoolgirl Single Scull
•Renae Domaschenz (ANUBC) – LTA Mixed Four
•James Stutchbery, Ross Davidson, Alistair Northam, Andrew Cameron, Angus Muller (cox) (Radford) – Schoolboy’s Coxed Quad Scull

BRONZE

•Stephanie Miniter, Brittany Staniforth, Loren Parsons, Mikaela Metcalfe (CGGS) – Under 19 Women’s Coxless Four
•Jacqui Williams, Emily Caudle (ANUBC) – Under 23 Women’s Double Scull
•Jacqui Williams, Emily Caudle (ANUBC) – Open Women’s Quad Scull

OTHER NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

•Jo Gubler and Tom Perry of CRC raced a very tight race for 5th in the Open Men’s Lightweight Double of which the top 3 crews were International visitors.
•Nick Barnier of CRC achieved a 4th in the B Final of the Open Men’s Single Scull.
•CGS attained 4th in both the Under 17 Men’s Coxed Eight, 4th in the Schoolboy Coxed Four, and 7th in the Under 19 Men’s Coxed Eight.
•The CGGS 1st Eight attained 4th in the B Final of the School Girl Coxed Eight. •Radford College’s 2nd boys crew achieved an A Final Start in the Schoolboy Coxed Quad Scull ahead of many other schools first crews. Radford’s girls 1st quad achieved a 5th place in the A final of the School Girls Coxed Quad Scull.
•ANU’s Emily Caudle achieved 6th in the Women’s Under 21 Single Scull. Tessa George achieved 6th in the School Girl Single Scull and 7th in the Women’s Under 21 Lightweight Single Scull. Bonnie Andrews achieved a 7th place in the Women’s Under 19 Single Scull. Tessa and Bonnie then combined to take 7th place in the Under 19 Women’s Double Scull.
•Black Mountain Rowing Club had a small contingent at the Nationals, but Luke Letcher and David Hoefer managed a creditable fourth in the under 21 double. Luke also achieved a 4th in the B Final of the Under 23 Men’s Single Scull.

Nominations for the Junior Team (and Junior coaches) have been extended to the 7th April 2013.

For further information view the Rowing Australia Website

Black Mountain Rowing Club would like to extend an invitation all in the ACT rowing Community to their boat naming ceremony to take place on the 13th April 2013. For details of the ceremony including history please view the following documents.

Invitation flyer

Boat Naming

Please RSVP to Judith Abercromby by Friday 5th April at abercromby56@gmail.com

Over the weekend Rowing ACT ran the Independent Schools Rowing Association Regatta with spectators based at Weston Park, rather than the traditional Lady Denman Drive finish area. The very successful regatta indisputably demonstrated why Weston Park is superior for spectators over the weekend. The shelter from wind at Weston Park provided balmy T-shirt wearing conditions for spectators, while officials at the finish wore snow apparel to minimise the wind chill. Shelter from the sun under the trees for both competitors and spectators is also an advantage of Weston Park, with competitors less likely to come away sunburned.
Significant other advantages of the Weston Park site were also clearly demonstrated compared to past big ISRA regattas. The site was big enough to accommodate spectators, competitors, boat trailers and boats, and that there was separation of these groups, such that accidents were less likely than at the much smaller Lady Denman Drive. Parking at Weston Park was conveniently close, plentiful and not breaking ACT laws. There were no issues regarding boats and rowers clogging up bike paths, or confrontations with cyclists annoyed with rowers and spectators on the path.
Spectators also avoided the potential biggest catastrophe regarding the Lady Denman site on Sunday morning, when road access was closed for a Pedal Power event. ISRA were doubtless relieved that they did not have to somehow manage this major conflict, which would have doubtless soured the perceptions of inter-state visitors. The Association understands that there was only four days notification of closure of Lady Denman Drive. It is not at all clear to Rowing ACT how spectators would have been able to access the finish area during this road closure.
Rowing ACT is of the opinion that its future spectator base for regattas will be in Weston Park. It provides better facilities, viewing of races and ambience than the Lady Denman Drive site.
I thank James Hammond, our BROS and all our volunteers for their excellent effort.