Three Sydney Uni rowers in the national senior team have won medals at the recent World Rowing Championships which concluded on 31st August Held on the Bosban in Amsterdam the event provide a mix of conditions and changeable weather.
Medallists from SUBC were, Fergus Pragnell in the men’s four, Sally Kehoe in the Women’s double scull and Sasha Belonogoff in the Men’s double scull.
The men’s four started their campaign with a second place in their heat behind the British crew and then won their semi-final ahead of Greece and Netherlands to take lane 4 for the final. They recovered from a disappointing performance at the Lucern World Cup to grab third behind favourites Great Britain with USA second.
The women’s double scull, stroked by Sally Kehoe, won their heat and their semi-final and went into lane 4 also in the final. The crew started well and moved into the lead in the second 500 trying to establish a winning break – the favourites New Zealand came from well down in the field to push through for gold, Poland passed us to take silver and Australia bronze.
The final medal – again bronze- went to Sasha Belonogoff in the men’s double. This was an incredibly tightly contested event with Croatia winning the final with an outstanding row but the following three crews were separated by only 0.14 seconds. The Aussie double of Sasha and James McRae managed to retain third just one hundredths of a second behind Italy and 0.23 ahead of Lithuania.
Both Fergus Pragnell and Sasha Belonogoff are likely to be available for the Sydney University men’s eight for The Australian Boat Race to be held on Sydney’s inner harbour on Sunday 26th October.