Another nationals been and gone, with some incredible results coming from our ACT contingent in Lake Barrington. Every year, our small but mighty ACT team puts some incredible results on the board
Small Boats: Kicking off the week strong, we saw some fantastic efforts in the singles and pairs. ANU-ACT Academy of Sport athletes, Hamish Harding and Catherine Khan showed their class with bronze medals respectively in the Open singles. For both athletes, this has lead to an Australian Rowing Team trials invitation later this month.
Alexandra Moylan returned to the lightweight boat class this year, and made a statement, with a silver medal in the Open Lightweight Single. In the Men’s U21 Lightweight Single Garvan Hayes followed in the footsteps of older brother Cormac and found his way onto the podium with a bronze medal.
Canberra Grammar’s Cameron Schmidt continued his form with a bronze medal in the School Boy Single, whilst Radford College’s Isobel Egan shone in the PR3 singles events taking out the PR3 Women’s Single and the PR3 Women’s Sprint in her first year as a classified athlete. Isobel’s incredible run from NSW Championships into Nationals resulted in an invitation to the Australian Rowing Team Trials.
In the Middle: Moving to the doubles and fours, the ACT’s flourish continued. Canberra Rowing Club’s Jesse Rosin and Darcy James finished a strong season with a bronze medal in the U21 Double Scull whilst ANU’s women’s program proved mighty with Catherine Khan taking a gold in the open women’s double. She was joined on the podium by fellow ANU athletes Ellora Kelly and Hannah Tippett, who took home the bronze. Hamish Harding made bronze his colour, with in the Open Double Scull.
Over in the lightweight division, Black Mountain’s Rowing Club’s Abbyghail Richards join the fun with a bronze medal in the Open Lightweight Women’s Double. Alex Moylan continued her silver spectacular with the Open Lightweight women’s Double.
In the U19 Men’s Coxless Fours, Canberra Grammar showed their skill, taking home the bronze with a classy finish. Meanwhile, ANU joined in the sweep action, taking another bronze in the Club Women’s Four.
Quad Style: Our ACT crews showed off in the quads, with medals abound. Sprinting home, ANU took out the Open Women’s Quad Sprint, and in the 2km variants, Hamish Harding added another bronze in the Open Men’s Quad. It was ANU’s powerhouse women of Catherine Khan, Alex Moylan, Hannah Tippett and Ellora Kelly who took out a silver behind a strong NTC women’s quad.
Black Mountain/Daramalan’s Ronja Staerker-Ashby and ANU’s Ruby Gray joined forces for the U23 Women’s Lightweight Quad to claim silver, and BMRC’s Abbyghail Richard shone brightly with her gold in the Open Women’s Lightweight quad.
But the stars of the quad show was undoubtably the School Girl and School Boy Quads. In a 10 minute window that had all ACT fans screaming hoarse, Canberra Girls Grammar charged home for a gold in the School Girl Quad, capping off an undefeated season in the ‘big and mighty green machine’, whilst their neighbours in Yarralumla Bay, Marist College made the School Boy Quad their own after last years Bronze medal efforts. We think ACT commentator Stuart John might still be recovering after calling those two across the line!
Big Boat Energy: It was the lightweights that showed the excitement of eight’s racing, with the Women’s Lightweight eight making its way onto the nationals scene for the first time, and ACT athletes featuring in the gold and silver medal crews – Alex Moylan made the ACT Lightweight crown her own with another gold to her bag whilst Ronja Staerker-Ashby joined a strong silver medal winning crew.
Interstate Fun: There were 19 ACT athletes donning the yellow and blue zootie for the final races of the week. Hamish Harding made his president’s cup debut with a bronze medal to top off his week, whilst Catherine Khan was just pipped for a medal in the Nell Slater in her debut single effort. The Victoria’s Cup crew pushed hard but were pipped by NSW to finish in 6th whilst the Men’s Lightweight four rowed a strong race to finish in 7th. For the first time since 2022, we had a Men’s Youth Eight on the course with all 9 athletes in the boat making their ACT debut. It was a race of 2 halves, with the Youth eight sitting back in the first 1000m but charging through Tasmania in the second half, and very nearly pushing onto South Australia to finish 6th.
Final Thoughts: There was not shortage of ACT athletes showing their pride throughout the week of Nationals. 98 athletes from 7 ACT clubs and schools made the trip across, and all of them showed why the ACT is a force to be reckoned with. Rowing ACT would also like to acknowledge the coaches, staff, supporters, umpires, volunteers and more who joined the rowers in Tasmania. It is not a small trip to make and the number of competitors who did compete is testimony to the dedication of many.
