Archive for month: February, 2016

Rowing ACT have a severe shortage of available Boat Race Officials for this weekend’s regatta.

To ensure that the regatta has enough volunteers to run Rowing ACT is seeking the assistance of club members. We need licensed boat drivers to transport Rowing ACT umpires up and down the course.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could volunteer to help. Please email Michael Cusack at actra@rowingact.org.au or call on 0406 376 666 if you are available.

Great news for masters rowers! This year, 4 masters rowing races are being included at the Sydney International Rowing Regatta in Penrith, March 23 to 29. These will be sprint races over 500 meters: a men’s and a women’s quad, and a men’s and a women’s eight. These are open to all masters rowers, so now is the time to get your crews organised and the training started.
The inclusion of masters races in the Open Championship Regatta, follows a number of initiatives put in place through the Masters Commission over the last couple of years. The accuracy of the revised handicaps, introduced in 2013, was tested in the new Club 8 events run for the first time at the 2016 AMRC regatta, with very exciting finishes involving crews from C to G categories crossing the line within fractions of a second of each other. The sprint races in March will test the handicaps for shorter events, and provide for more exciting finishes.

Another issue progressed last year was a survey of masters rowers on preferred locations and rotation strategies for AMRC regattas. The outcome was a proposal for a rotation strategy that included a return to Penrith each 4 years. The RA Board will consider this rotation strategy as part of the National Event Strategy review.
Information about the Masters Commission is set out on the Rowing Australia website under governance, together with minutes from the monthly teleconference meetings. If there is something you would like the Masters Commission to address over the coming year, contact the ACT representative on the Commission, Susan Linacre at sjlinacre@gmail.com.

Sue Linacre

ACT based rowers have progressed closer to Olympic selection following the NSW State Rowing Championships at Penrith on the weekend. Kathryn Ross of ANU with her doubles partner Gavin Bellis of Victoria are likely members of the Para Olympic team, lightweight Hannah Every-Hall is also potentially heading to the Olympics again, and the surprise packet is Luke Letcher who has been drafted into the elite Men’s sweep oared squad. Cara Grzeskowiak had a good regatta but is rowing with an injury, and opted out of the Olympic selections.
Among the ACT individuals and club crews, a highlight was the win of Caleb Antill (ANU) in the Mens Under 23 Champion Single just ahead of his training partner Tyron Boorman of Black Mountain. The close racing between these two scullers and their inter-state rivals indicate that the next generation of Olympic scullers are pushing each other very hard. The close racing in this group will continue until the national regatta in mid March, when several of them might be selected part of an Australian under 23 team.
The potential ACT state lightweight four of Tom Perry, Callum McKenzie, Francis Snelgar and Mack Wilcox from ANU and Canberra rowing clubs won the elite lightweight fours, and it is great to see the ACT competing with the best in Australian lightweight rowing.
Wins to youngsters from Radford (Annie Creer in the under 17 single) and the Canberra Girls Grammar under 16 quad were also highlights for their respective school programs. Canberra Rowing Club youngsters Gavin Southerland and Connor McCormack had a win in the under 21 Lightweight double.
All of the ACT schools and clubs who participated had medalists in various events, with many very close results after hard racing in hot and humid conditions. All of these crews are to be commended on their participation and success.

Canberra Grammar School Rowing would like to extended ACT Rowing community members an invitation to attend the CGS Annual Dinner on the 27th of February 2016, 6.30 – 11.03 at the The Conservatory Restaurant.

For the invitation see here – CGS ROWING DINNER INVITES 2016

TICKETS AND RSVP BY: MONDAY 15TH of February 2016 at Try Booking: www.trybooking.com/181053

 

Canberra Rowing Club, Radford College Rowing and Capital Lakes Rowing Club hold the top three positions respectively in the overall 2015-16 ACT Season Point Score. See here for the full Point Score update.

A reminder that double points are awarded for Championship events.

Rowing ACT looks forward to another successful ACT Champs on the 27th and 28th of February.  See here for the Championship Order of Events.