The Australian Men’s U23 Quad finished the World U23 Championships with a bronze medal in a tough fought A final at Trakai, Lithuania last Sunday 15th July. The Aussie Quad with SUBC reps Ryan Edwards and Sasha Belonogoff plus Ben Morley of Grammarians Qld and Jay Ditmarsch of Mosman started slowly and were 5th at the 500 mark trailing leaders Ukraine, Italy, France and Czech Republic. With Ukrainians making the pace the Aussies moved to 4th at the 1000 and 1.85 seconds from the lead. At the 1500 our crew had made it into second but the margins from 1st to 4th were 2.3 seconds. In the final 500 four crews pushed their claims for victory and the gaps narrowed. On the line Ukraine took our gold in 5.59.68 from Italy 1.19 seconds ahead of Italy and Australia 0.23 seconds behind in third. France was fourth only 0.37 behind Australia. There were 24 countries entered in the U23 Men’s Quad Scull.
The crew was coached by Sydney Uni Rowing Director Mark Prater. Prior to the World Championships the U23 quad had won at 2012 Royal Henley. Out photo shows the crew celebrating after the race in the beer tent.
Other Australian crews also had success at Trakai. Tom Morris ( head Coach of Sydney Rowing Club) achieved bronze with the U23 Men’s eight while Tom Laurich’s U23 Men’s Coxless Four won silver behind Germany. This crew was selected from Australian athletes studying at US universities. In the women’s races the Australian Women’s Quad won gold in convincing fashion and the Women’s Four also gained silver. The Men’s Coxed Four steered by SUBC’s Will Raven made the A Final and finished 5th. In all seven of Australia’s eight crews at the U23 Championships made the A finals with five of them winning medals.
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