Congratulations to the ACT School’s Pathway’s Eights who competed in Sydney last week at the Rowing Australia School’s Pathways Regatta! Both crews represented the ACT with distinction and should be very proud of their efforts.
The Pathways Regatta is held consecutively with the Rowing Australia Under 19 Trials and sees the best school rowers compete head to head for the pride of their state. The two ACT Eights both made A finals, and rowed fantastically across the 2 days of competition.
Thursday afternoon saw the eights on the course for their heats, with the women’s crew of Holly Howard, Zoe Macintosh, Jade Wilson, Sophie Mckay, Emily Walker, Ash Watts, Madison Duncan, Imogen Lang and Cox, Amelia Mukherjee take out second place in a fiercely contested heat, whilst the men’s crew of Harry Budd, Austin Bennie, Elliot Jallier, Luke Jallier, Connor Malouf, Rohan White, Dylan Outram, Jamie Bjerregaard and Cox Jack Mcdonald hold onto third in their heat, scrapping through to the final.
Thursday night was the annual pathways dinner, a long standing Rowing Australia tradition that encourages all states athlete’s to mingle and make new friends! Guest speaker Tara Rigney spoke about the hardships of rowing, how she bounces back (even after falling in at Nationals!) and feeling starstruck meeting Ash Barty at the Olympics!
Friday morning was the finals, and both crews performed spectacularly! The Women’s eight had a flying start to finish 4th, just off the podium whilst the Men’s crew had a battle with Victoria in the final 500m and came up short by a seat to finish 5th.
All crews should be proud of their efforts, and the way they held themselves whilst representing the ACT. A massive thanks to our coaches, Sarah Peterswald, Caroline Pijpers, Riley Taylor and William Hatcher, with additional thanks to the Rowing ACT staff, Tom Creber and Sarah Davoren who supported the team.
Final congratulations to our two Under 19 trialists, Darcy James and Jesse Rosin who rowed fantastically in the singles on Thursday, with Darcy finishing second in the B final and Jesse taking out second in the A final.
