New South Wales King’s Cup stroke Dan Noonan led the charge for medals at the 2011 World Rowing Championships. In his habitual position as stroke Dan with Karsten Fosterling, James Macrae and Chris Morgan behind took the gold medal in the Men’s Quad – from the fading German crew – literally on the line. Australia has had much promise in this boat in the past but has never before won an Olympics or World Championships. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics our men’s quad recorded the world’s fastest time in their repechage but finished a whisker away from the medals in 4th in the final. In 2009 the quad gained silver at the World’s, bronze in 2010 and finally gold in 2011.
The 2011 crew had a consistent regatta and in the final were always close to the lead moving through the first 500 in third six tenths of second of leadersRussia. At the 1000 metres the Germans had moved to the lead with the Aussies only four tenths of a second behind. The German crew went hard in the third 500 reaching the final 1500 eight tenths of a second ahead ofAustralia. Both Germany and Australia were well clear of the remaining A finalists.
With only 50 meters to go it looked like Germany would get gold but a bad stroke just before the line saw their boat lose momentum and the Aussies were there to snatch gold by 0.25 of a second.
Dan Noonan has reached the top of rowing in Australia with wins in the President’s Cup Sculls in 2008 and three consecutive King’s Cup victories in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (the last two as stroke) . At Westlakes in Adelaide this year Dan stroked the NSW Eight to a new King’s Cup record of 5 mins 22 seconds. Dan rowed at Riverview in their 1999 eight and subsequently at Mosman Rowing Club. Dan came to Sydney Uni from 2004 to 2008 when Mosman could not secure a regular coach and worked under SUBC Coach Marty Rabjohns until he was accepted into the AIS in 2007. Dan went back to his first club after the 2008 Olympics and the appointment of Nick Garratt as head coach. Unfortunately Nick (who also coached the NSW King’s Cup eight in 2011) could not be in Bled to see Dan and his crew secure the gold.