Quadruple Sculls thrill at #SIRR18

Finals continued today at the 2018 Aon Sydney International Rowing Regatta with athletes racing for a podium finish. The overcast but calm conditions allowed for plenty of closely fought out finals, with numerous rowers medalling for the second time this National Championship.

The day commenced in an exciting fashion with less than one second separating gold and silver in the Under 17 Women’s Double Scull final. It was Lucy Hope and Sophie Gerber (Toowong RC) who held off a strong finish from Grace Sypher and Georgia Powell (University of Queensland BC/Rockhampton GS) to win. With these athletes finishing in the top four positions in the Under 17 Women’s Single Scull final, it was unsurprising that the quality of racing was so high.

Dual medallist, Lucy Hope said she was happy with how she and Gerber executed the race.
“It went really well, we stuck to our race plan the way we wanted which was great. Georgia and Grace started pushing up in the last 500 metres but we pushed back and got the win,” said Hope.

In the Under 19 Women’s Double Sculls final, Taylor McCarthy-Smith and Laura Chancellor (Brisbane & GPS RC/Toowong RC-QAS) proved to be an unstoppable force after claiming gold and silver in yesterday’s Under 19 Women’s Double Scull.

Chancellor admitted that the race didn’t go completely to plan.

“It was pretty hard, we caught a crab 200 metres into the race so we had to really grind to get past that. But I’m really proud of how we didn’t let this affect us and we did manage to get the win,” she said.

Olympians David Watts and Alexander Hill (Sydney RC/Adelaide RC -NTC) combined to win the Open Men’s Double Scull by two seconds. It was a hotly contested race with Campbell Watts and Hamish Playfair (UTS RC/Sydney University BC-NTC) finishing with silver and brothers Alexander and Nicholas Purnell (Sydney University BC-NTC) claiming bronze.

Hill said that he was expecting a tight race and it was a matter of remaining strong through to the end.
“We knew that Hamish (Playfair) and Campbell (Watts) were going to have a good start so we were just trying to stay in touch, do the work and build through that. It was great to be paired with Dave (Watts) and go through the finish line first,” he said.