Led by the selection of Liz Kell and Brooke Pratley in the Women’s Olympic Eight large contingent of Sydney Uni rowers will represent Australia and Australian Universities overseas this year. Joining Liz and Brooke are Marty Rabjohns (cox) and Jeremy Stevenson in the Men’s Olympic Eight. Both eights won their finals at the recent first World Cup in Munich and will contest the second World Cup in Lucerne on 31 May – 1 June.
Francis Hegerty and Matt Ryan will be attending the Lucerne event as members of the Men’s Coxless Four. The crew must qualify for the Olympics by winning the qualification race at Poznan, Poland in 16-18th June. With 16 crews entered in the fours at Lucerne our crew will have a chance to see the speed of their opposition. Only ONE place at the Olympics for the men’s four is available from the Poznan regatta.
In the non-Olympic Senior A team SU veteran Bronwen Watson will again join her Lightweight quad teammates as they defend their 2007 title of World Champions. Fergus Pragnell will team up with UTS’s Nick Baxter in the Sen A Men’s Coxed Pair and Terrence Alfred has been selected as Men’s heavyweight sweep reserve for the Olympic Team. Nick Hudson was unlucky to miss selection in the men’s heavy quad for the Olympics and has been nominated as reserve.
In U23’s Cox Toby Lister and rowers James Goswell, Richard Allsop and Justin Quigley will attempt to improve on their bronze medal of 2007 when they again represent in the men’s U23 heavyweight eight. This boat is training in Melbourne under coach Bill Tait. Last year’s silver medallists in the U23 Women’s Quad , Renee Kirby and Charlotte Walters will this year represent in the U23 Double Scull and will be coached by SUBC Director of Rowing Phil Bourguignon in Sydney.
Representing in the Junior Team in 2008 will be Ryan Edwards who will partner Matt Dignan in the Men’s Junior pair while Ashleigh Peppernell will be in the Women’s Junior Four.
As well five athletes and two coaches from SU Rowing will be in the Australian Universities team to contest the World University Rowing Championships in September in Serbia. Ailsa Tremayne and Tash Bolsin in the Women’s Four and Chloe O’Regan and Emma Costello in the Women’s Double – both crews to be coached by AB ( Alan Bennett) and Dave Neuhaus in the Men’s Four which will be coached by Mark Prater.
Full details of the dates of the various World Championships these teams are attending are in the Calendar section of this website.