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Mens Crews to Friday, Racing Heats Up at HRR
Both our Britannia and Wyfold crews have enjoyed a positive start to the regatta, both progressing on to their respective quarter finals on Friday.
Our Britannia 4+ launched their campaign on Thursday, taking on City of Bristol – a club very familiar to three seat Max Brenner… Unfazed, the boys settled into their rhythm quickly off the start, taking the win with a verdict of 2 lengths in a classy performance which can be seen below. They move on to race R.C. Hannover, Germany, at 7:15pm BST / 4:15am AEST.
Henley Friday in 2019 marks the first running of the Kings Cup at HRR in 100 years, paying tribute to the Henley Peace Regatta run in the aftermath of WWI in 1919. SRC’s Charlie Patterson looks to bring the experience of his four campaigns with the club to the Australian Defence Force’s entry. They will be the first cab off the rank, facing the Netherlands at 11:00am BST / 8:00pm AEST.
Check out some of their preparation here.
A special mention must go out to a few friends of SRC.
Kate Wagstaff, who joined us on January camp in Jindabyne, after winning the Lwt 2- at Henley Womens, has qualified and progressed to Friday in the Tideway Scullers School Remenham Eight. Kate is set to face the Netherlands at 5:35pm BST / 2:35am AEST
Miles Devereux, who will be joining us next season, is racing in the Leander ‘A’ boat in the Fawley Challenge Cup, he comes up against Tideway Scullers ‘C’ at 6:35pm BST / 3:35am AEST.
Bryn Ellery, who is also joining us next season, has progressed to Friday in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup. Bryn is racing for his alma mater in a Windsor Boys and Windsorian Boat Club composite. He races Edinburgh and Nottingham at 3:05pm BST / 12:05am AEST.
Good luck to all our crews and friends racing! You can follow them live from home below!
SRC Gears up for Henley Royal Regatta 2019
Our 13 SRC athletes and three coaches have put in some seriously hard yards the last three months in preparation for Henley Royal Regatta 2019. Check out the video below to see what they’ve been up to.
Our J16 Womens Quad, (Lily Gavan, Jasmine Bowers, Lily Eales, and Sarah Abrams) were the first crew to depart, and qualified 5th fastest for Henley Womens regatta. Unfortunately, they were to face the highly regarded Headington School in the first round. The crew put up a strong fight, however fell short by one length to the eventual finalists.
The girls then had the daunting task of qualifying for the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta, an event for girls up to 18 years of age. The young crew again put their all out on the course, however fell short by just half a second to miss out on qualifying.
Our Britannia and Wyfold Challenge Cup crews, arriving shortly after Henley Womens, have been busy getting used to their boats and training on the Henley reach in preparation for their first races this week. All three crews had a hit out at the Reading Town Regatta, with the 4- and 4x winning all their races, and the 4+ going down to The University of York in the final.
Long time SRC member Charlie Patterson is undertaking his fifth Henley Campaign, this time for the Australian Defence force in a race for the King’s Cup to commemorate the 1919 Henley Peace Regatta. The ADF will be defending their title, after they defeated crews from the allied nations 100 years ago. The crew face The Netherlands in their first race on Thursday.
Our Wyfold crew, of Oscar Olsen, Oscar Carr-Middleton, Alex Potter, and Alex Nichol, are due to face Cambridge ’99 ‘B’ on Wednesday afternoon at 5:50pm Henley time, or 2:50am Sydney Time.
Our Britannia crew, of Dylan Boakes, Torun Olsson, Max Brenner, Tom Galloway, and cox Nick Dunlop – afforded a rest on the first day of racing – are set to face City of Bristol on Thursday, with an exact time to be confirmed at the conclusion of racing on Wednesday evening.
A further good luck must go to Miles Devereux in the Leander ‘A’ crew and Alex Pikelis in the Leander ‘B’ crew competing in the Fawley Challenge Cup ahead of joining us next season. Bryn Ellery will also be joining us next season after competing in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup in a Windsor Boys / Windsorian Boat Club composite. Freya Neville and Bella Scammell will be competing in the Diamond Jubilee Challenge Cup for their home school of Kinross Wolaroi after laying the foundations for their season at our summer January camp.
Good luck to all our SRC members competing this week, we can’t wait to see some red boxes in the hands of some sky blue blazers.
Racing will be live streamed on Youtube, and can be found on Henley Royal Regatta’s Youtube Channel
Results Trees, indicating race times and progression through the regatta, can be found here, courtesy of our friends at AllMarkOne
SRC at the 2019 RNSW Presentation Dinner
On Friday 17th May, Rowing NSW held its annual presentation dinner to honour the achievements made throughout the season, and as usual, Sydney Rowing Club was extremely well represented.
As is tradition, the NSW Union of Rowers uses the dinner to present its annual youth scholarship. Unfortunately, you are only eligible to win the scholarship once, meaning our 7 winners from last year could not be awarded again. However, we were still represented by three athletes: Lily Gavan, Sarah Abrams, and coxswain Hannah Cowap. The scholarship is for $1,000, which for Lily and Sarah will be put to much use in their upcoming Henley Campaign.
Click Here to see the full list of recipients
In the presentation of trophies and shields, SRC was presented the shield for Open Women’s, as well as the combined U19 and U21 shield. President Keith Jameson also accepted the NSW Honours Recipients Trophy for the NSW State Championship Point score, this being only the third time Sydney has won this trophy, with the last time being 2002.
In the awards portion of the evening, the club was represented by two of our most passionate members.
On the back of a World Champs Silver in the Junior Women’s coxed Four, and countless national medals and titles, including the Women’s Interstate Youth Eight, the 2019 Coach of the Year award was presented to our Women’s Development Coach – Lachlan Carter.
After an extremely successful year, becoming the first female to cox a medalling men’s crew at a World Championships, and then winning the King’s Cup, our own Kendall Brodie was awarded Coxswain of the Year for the second season running.
The 2019 Presentation Dinner was yet another demonstration of the hard work, dedication, and overwhelming success of Sydney Rowing Club athletes and coaches, congratulations to all those who contributed to these achievements.
Click here to see the full list of Trophy & Shield Recipients
Click here to see the full list of Award Recipients
Notice: Vice-Captain Appointment
Ed White has resigned from the position of Vice-Captain of the club due to his impending move to Melbourne.
Ed has had an outstanding career as an oarsman since joining the club in 2011 after rowing at Riverview. He rowed in the Australian Under 23 Eight in 2013, competed at Henley Royal Regatta on four occasions, (winning the Britannia Cup coxed four in 2015), won the Champion Eights of NSW in 2015 and 2017, won the Riverview Gold Cup on three occasions, rowed in many other successful crews at the NSW and Australian Championships, competed at the Head of the Charles, won the Men’s Open Eight at the Head of the Yarra, and rowed in the winning NSW King’s Cup eight in 2017.
Ed came onto the club’s Board as Vice-Captain a year ago replacing Kendall Brodie when she moved to the Men’s NTC in Canberra after being selected in the Australian Men’s Eight. He has made a valuable contribution to the Board and we are sorry to see him leave.
The Board has appointed Stephen Graham as Vice-Captain to fill the vacancy until the end of the present term. Steve needs no introduction – he has three children who compete for SRC, and is a regular competitor in masters rowing himself. We wish him success as Vice-Captain.
Club crews prevail and NSW Makes History on Day 7
A chilly start to the final day of SIRR 2019 saw most crews undertake a quick pre-row, and our state team athletes quickly retreat to the safety of the NSWIS tent.
Our club crews could be afforded no such luxuries however, with the point score not quite wrapped up, we needed all crews to perform in a big morning of racing to secure the title.
With the Women’s Four scratching, the Men’s Double and Four had incredible races, both collecting Bronze medals.
The Women’s Eight was a highlight of the day, the scratch combination featuring women ages 16-27, some at their first nationals and some their 10th, stormed through the field in the second 500. The girls maintained their lead and finished ahead of favourites Sydney University by 1.76 seconds in true SRC style.
Moments later, the Men’s crew, joined by the late addition of Billy Sanders from Scots, who first rowed for the club at Head of the Yarra last year, had a tight battle with Mosman Rowing Club through the first 1000m. The boys, urged on by cox Scotty Trayhurn, laid down a push in the third 500m to take a Silver behind Mercantile.
These results have provisionally secured the point score, although this has not yet been officially announced.
Just a few hours later, after a notably efficient boat loading process, 17 of our athletes and three coaches took to the water to represent NSW in the Interstate Regatta.
Ben Gibson opened the proceedings for SRC, taking a silver medal in difficult conditions in the PR3 M1x.
The next two hour of racing was simply incredible for the NSW eights, all featuring SRC athletes. NSW continued their winning streak in the Men’s Youth Eight, win the Women’s Youth Eight for the first time in 6 years, win the Queens Cup after a 14 year drought, and take the King’s Cup for the 3rd time on the trot in the 100th running of the event. This is the first time that one state has taken home all four eights in one regatta.
After a regatta where pretty much everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Sydney Rowing Club, it is incredible to see our athletes perform so fantastically in an afternoon that will go down in the history books.
Club President Keith Jameson passed on the following remarks:
I congratulate all of our athletes and coaches on the success of the club at the National Regatta. It was a great regatta for the club, with many outstanding results and fine individual performances, along with the usual disappointments, mishaps, illness, and high emotion.
I especially congratulate our athletes and coaches who represented NSW in the Interstate Regatta. Until this year, no state has ever won all the eight-oared races at the one regatta. This will be an historic regatta to be remembered for many years to come. I am particularly proud that so many of the athletes who represented NSW came from the SRC programme.
Thank you to Rowing Australia / Delly Carr, as well as Keith Jameson for the photos.
Sydney Narrows the Margin on Day 6
The Saturday of Nationals has always been a big day for Sydney Rowing Club. Our unique talent of jumping into scratch crews – often with incredibly tight turn arounds – to help move up the point score, is one which makes the club truly great.
2019 was no exception. We saw 13 crews featuring SRC athletes take to the water in A Finals, of which 10 brought home medals. Despite this not being reflected by the medal tally, this has brought the point score within striking distance ahead of Sunday’s club events.
The first event of the day brought home our first Gold, with Lily Gavan joining HVGS’s Sarah Abrams, Loretto Kirribilli’s Lily Eales, and St Catherines Amelia Cooper to take an open water win in the U17 W4x+. Sarah and Lily Eales are both SRC members rowing for their schools, and we can’t wait to see what this group of girls can do as they progress through the age groups.
Not long after, Ella Hudson continued her successful regatta, stroking her composite U19 W4x to victory. In the process defending her 2018 title. With just a 40 minute turn around, Ella dropped off her composite mates, and picked up India Thomson, Lauren Lyon, and Crystal Piper to row the U21 W4x. The crew battled the entire way down the course with Swan River Rowing Club, but had to settle for second as the girls from across the Nullarbor pulled away in the closing stages.
Our girls continued their Quadruple Sculling success, when 2017 and 2018 U21 champions Harriet Hudson and Romy Davenport, as well as 2018 champion Crystal Piper, pulled in WARC’s Georgia Patten to help out in securing a silver medal in the U23 W4x.
We had a brief break in medals for the next couple of hours, until our Beefcakes Lauren Graham and Issy Furrer, as well as Harriet Hudson and Cox Hannah Cowap, teamed up with some mates from WA and QLD to show everyone what they could do in the U23 W8+. The crew had a spectacular lead at the 500m mark, and could not be tamed in the rest of the race. They stormed home to an 11 second victory over many of the crews who had defeated them in the Fours on Friday.
In the following race, scratch combination of Tom Galloway, Max Brenner, Torun Olsson, and Chris McCarthy, brought home a Bronze medal, despite having essentially zero warmup. When asked about the race, two seat Torun Olsson commented “We essentially just rocked up caffeinated to the eyeballs, and said lets row good”
Continuing his dominance, Pr3 athlete Ben Gibson then came down the course, along with two of his team mates from last years national crew, to win the Pr3 Mixed Coxed Four in a blistering 7:13. This crew has been training together for the last few months, and we hope their time is a sign of great things to ahead in the coming international season.
Our final medal race of the day was a spectacular sight. The recent introduction of the Open Men’s Eight saw Sydney Rowing Club enter two crews, with the intention of giving some of our working class men a run at the national championships. Fortunately for us, no one else had thought to enter any crews.
As such, we formed two extremely mixed boats. They consisted of NTC members, former Henley Winners, World Champions, Uni Students, and our working class hero’s, and nobody could have asked for a better race. The two crews were locked together the entire way down the course with the lead never exceeding more than half a length. The final time was 5:55.82 with an incredibly narrow margin of just 0.97 seconds. This is what Sydney Rowing Club is all about.
The conclusion of Day 5 see’s Sydney Rowing Club locked in a battle with Sydney University Boat Club for the point score once again. The margin is smaller than one gold in any of the events on offer tomorrow. Sydney will boat a Club Women’s Four and Eight, as well as Men’s Double, Four, and Eight, ahead of seeing 28 athletes compete in the Interstate regatta in the afternoon.
Photos courtesy of Rowing Australia/Delly Carr and Keith Jameson
11 Medals in Friday Finals
Day 5 of SIRR presented an opportunity for SRC to pick up a plethora of medals in medium boats, being Fours and Doubles, as well as a chance for our Para athletes to shine. By the early afternoon, SRC was ranked third in the medal tally, a promising position ahead of our big boats and Club events over the weekend.
The morning kicked off with Ella Hudson and Sophia Carmody taking out a Silver in the Women’s Under 19 Double Scull. The crew has had limited opportunities to train together, with Sophia still rowing with Pymble Ladies College, meaning this was a particularly strong result.
In the U21 running of this race, Lauren Lyon rowed with Crystal Piper – who came in as a last minute medical substitution for Issy Jonsson – to take a silver medal. A great result for a scratch crew.
A short time later, after being narrowly edged out by Mosman in the heat, our U21 Men’s Coxed Four of Ash Nicholls, Torun Olson, Oscar Carr-Middleton, and Oscar Olsen – coxed by Harry Keenan – brought home our first National Championship of the day. Harry commented that it was one of the most enjoyable races he had ever coxed. The crew laid down a solid rhythm and led start to finish.
Inspired by her younger sister, Harriet Hudson joined forces with WARC’s Georgia Patten to take out the U23 W2x. In a start to finish lead, this was a commanding performance, and will be a combination to watch in the coming selection trials.
Moving onto the Coxless Fours, Sydney was represented in both the Women’s and Men’s renditions. In the Women’s event, Lauren Graham and Issy Furrer teamed up with Western Australians Lia Franklin and Olivia Jones to stick it to the favourites, SUBC/UTS. The crew threw the kitchen sink at it, however had to settle for Silver in a tight race.
Immediately following, our Men’s crew of Alex Nichol, Harry Crouch, Jackson Kench, and Alex Potter, came up against an incredibly strong field. With the minor positions changing all throughout the race, the boys held off Mercantile by just 0.20 of a second to take the Bronze Medal.
Masters rower Rob McNeil, a former Toowong lighty and coach, jumped back into a crew from his old club, to bring home 1/8th of a Bronze medal for SRC in the OLM8+
In the last few finals of the day, our Para Athletes Ben Gibson and Erik Horrie had their time to shine. Ben had an incredibly tight race in the PR3 M2- with partner James Talbot. The duo fought with rivals from SA for the first 1500m of the race, before pulling away in the closing stages to secure a national championship.
Five-time World Champion Erik Horrie, had the rare opportunity to have international competition on his home course. Facing off against Hong Kong’s Ajmal Victor Samuel, Erik put down an incredibly consistent race to secure another National Championship.
SRC is set to boat 11 crews A Finals tomorrow morning, in what should be a fantastic morning of Quads and Eights racing.
Click here for today’s results, and Saturdays Draw
Thankyou to Rowing Australia/Delly Carr for the photos.
6 Medals for SRC on Thursday at SIRR 19
The first day of finals for SRC saw 19 crews boat in A Finals for their small boats. Of those 19, 6 came away with medals.
The day opened with certified beef cheek Lily Gavan storming home in the WU17 1x to take a Silver Medal. Having only joined the club at the end of last year, she has worked incredibly hard and it’s great to see it pay off with a medal.
A further congratulations to Sarah Abrams of Hunter Valley Grammar – Lily’s Doubles partner – for taking out Fourth, as well as Lily Eales from Loreto Kirribilli – who will row alongside Lily and Sarah in the WU17 4X+ later in the regatta – On her Gold Medal.
Moving up a few age categories, our Under 21 Pairs shone once again. Party Pair of Issy Furrer and Lauren Graham fought through rivals from Banks to take the lead by the halfway point, and continued on to hold clear water over the field for the remainder of the race.
In the Men’s equivalent, doing it for Queen and Country, Oscar Olsen and Oscar Carr-Middleton were off to a modest start, sitting in 4th at the 1000m mark. However, known for a sprint finish, our pair of Brits wound to the line to come home with a Silver Medal.
Not long after, Harriet Hudson contested the Women’s Under 23 Single, hoping to better her bronze medal performance of 2018. Harriet quickly settled into second in the first half of the race, and held off doubles partner Georgia Patten to hang on to her Silver Medal across the line.
An honourable mention must go to our U23 Pairs of Jackson Kench / Harry Crouch, as well as Alex Potter and Alex Nichol. Their race was one of the closest of the day, with just 1.3 seconds separating 3rd and 6th. Our men were unlucky to be on the wrong side of that battle, with Kench/Crouch placing 6th, and Potter/Nichol 5th. Both crews, however, posted their best times of the season. These men will hopefully be ones to watch over the winter.
Finally, our NTC Men put on a great show in the Open Men’s Pair. The all Sydney combination of Josh Hicks and Sam Hardy were hot on the heels of the race leaders through the middle of the race, however couldn’t match the pace of Spencer Turrin (partnered with Hamish Playfair) in the closing stages. Hicks and Hardy came away with a Bronze, whilst Spencer brought home a Silver Medal.
Today’s results have far exceeded our usual Thursday standing, bring on the fours and doubles on Friday!
Thankyou to Rowing Australia for the photos.
21 Sydney Crews to Contest A Finals
Sydney has had an awesome three days in the preliminary rounds of Nationals 2019, and is set to see 21 crews race in small boat A Finals tomorrow!
The vast majority of our crews avoided racing in Repechages on Tuesday, with the exception of a couple of underweight boats after the weekends wet weather.
See below for the full list of Thursdays crews!
U17 W1x A Final – Lily Gavan, who won both her Heat and Semi Final.
U17 M1x A Final – Michael Campbell
U19 W1x A Final – Ella Hudson, also winning her Heat and coming from behind to row through her main competition, winning her Semi Final.
U19 M1x B Final – Namkhai Stylianou
U21 W1x A Final – Lauren Lyon
U21 M1x A Final – Ash Nicholls and Tom Galloway
B Final – Torun Olsson
U21 W2– A Final – Both pairs of Issy Furrer and Lauren Graham, as well as Crystal Piper and India Thomson saw great races in their Repechage to qualify for the A Final.
U21 M2- A Final – Oscar Olsen and Oscar Carr-Middleton. The British Duo took out their heat in a start to finish win.
U23 W1x A Final – State Champion Harriet Hudson, and Canberra-based Romy Davenport will face a high quality field after cruising through to the Final.
U23 M2- A Final – The combination of Jackson Kench and Harry Crouch saw a vast improvement in the Repechage to qualify, whilst the newly formed duo of Newington Alumnus Alex Nichol and Alex Potter qualified directly for this race
OM1x A Final – David Watts
OW2- A Final – Leah Saunders, paired with WARC’s Hannah Vermeersch had a strong row in their repechage to set them up for a great A Final.
OM2- A Final – Harvard Graduates Josh Hicks and Sam Hardy would be seen as hot contenders for this race. They face off against Spencer Turrin rowing with Hamish Playfair, as well as Angus Moore partnered with Alex Purnell
U21 LW1x A Final – British import, and recent convert to low-calorie rowing, Issy Jonsson, won both her Heat and Semi Final in the lead up to this race.
OLM2- A Final – In a straight match race, Andrew Brown and Chris McCarthy will face State Champions James and Peter Waldersee in their first ever race as a combination.
PR3 M1x A Final – State Champion Ben Gibson will see his first race of the regatta here
Thursday Afternoon will see a break in racing for most of the club, with only our Club Women’s Double Sculls taking to the water.
All the best to all our crews racing, we can’t wait to see you bring it home!
Check out the Draw, Results, and Live Stream here
Thankyou to Rowing Australia for the photo.
Winter Development 2019
Check out the below for details of how Sydney Rowing Club can further your rowing career in the 2019 Winter and beyond!
You can contact each of our three development coaches, Franz Imfeld, Lachlan Carter, and Brendan Longman – through the relevant contact forms found here
