Queen’s Gambit Is Oar-Inspired

Eight oars, one voice, a pink boat and a genuine shot at history.

A West Australian women’s eights, powered by Olympians and elite club rowers and moulded on grit, passion and camaraderie, is today aiming to become the first crew outside Victoria and New South Wales to win the prestigious Queen’s Cup, one of the signature events of the Australian Rowing Championships on Lake Barrington in Tasmania.

WA has also set its sights on a top-four finish in the men’s equivalent, the King’s Cup, and will start as one of the hot chances in the women’s youth eights.

Steering a pink boat named in honour of WA businesswoman and Rowing Australia patron Gina Rinehart, the women’s eights want to break the Eastern States stranglehold on a trophy that was first presented in 1921 to the winning fours crew.

It has been the eights prize since 1999 — Victoria has won it 21 times since then and NSW filled in the gaps.

WA eights coach Mark Beer said the crew had been “building something special”.

“We’re in a good position this year, we’ve got most of the athletes available and healthy and some of the top performers are doing exceptionally well at the National Training Centre. It’s an exciting time,” Beer said.

“Third place last year was a great result for the girls. We were missing a couple of the key NTC rowers through injury or various different reasons and were a little underpowered, so to get on the podium was through some really impressive performances from some home grown club athletes that stepped up into that space.

“A couple of them are back in the bow end of this year’s boat, but we’re very fortunate to have four of the NTC girls.”

The NTC rowers are Olympians Bronwyn Cox, Giorgia Patton and Jacqui Swick, along with Rebecca Pretorius, who joined the national squad late last year. That quartet sent out a loud warning on Friday when they won the women’s coxless fours.

“That’s the stern four and then we have an exciting prospect, Emma Pittman. She’s an under-23 athlete who’s also represented Australia under-age at water polo and has come across to rowing, having done a bit of school rowing at Guildford Grammar. She’ll also be doubling up in the youth eights, which is exciting for her.

“We’ve got Greta Spencer, who’s been to two junior worlds, a nice little story around Bri Murray, who came back to rowing in her early 30s a few years ago, has two kids under the age of four, and this will be her second Queen’s Cup.

“It just shows if you can find the purpose in life and in sport, you can do some pretty amazing things.

“There’s Lara Glendinning, who has competed and medalled in a lightweight big cup in the past.

“It’s a really impressive group of of WA, born and bred, very passionate women.

“It is a privilege as a coach to work with them. They don’t just want to get on the podium. They’ve done that a few times now. It’s about trying to push for the for the victory in the event.”

Beer said the DNA of the crew was “honesty” from the Olympians right down to the cox Rei Poon.

“They’re so accountable to each other. There’s a real level of understanding of what the strengths are that everyone brings to the group,” he said.

“We’ve got a really great leadership group in there, those senior girls have embraced the club athletes and the WA-based athletes really well and they really understand what those non-NTC women bring to the boat.

“There is a cohesion and determination to put themselves on the limit, to stick to the process and really see if they can achieve something that hasn’t been done before from WA.

“I think it would be a poor decision for the other States to not respect what we’re bringing to the race. And at the same time, we respect what the other States bring. Queensland are going to be tough. They’re always strong opposition. And we know what NSW and Victoria bring. They’ve got a long history of duelling it out in this event.

“But it’s about time that the best from the west put their their hand in that fire and started to be considered as viable champions of this race.

“They’re a great group. It’s going to be tough and it’s going to require a lot of things to be done right on the day, but they’re prepared for it and they’re up for the challenge.”

The WA King’s Cup crew is spearheaded by three NTC rowers, Jack Cleary, a bronze medallist in the quad scull at the Tokyo Olympics, Johnson Daubney and Alex Rossi.

Lachlan Brown, Fergus McNamara, Quinton Marketos, Ben Clayton and Joshua Hantke fill the other positions, with Keana Hall the cox.

“It’s a bit of a development crew. We have some talent at the top and some really good young guys coming through,” said King’s Cup head coach Tom Gatti, whose brother James was a member of the WA crew last time it won the race in 2005.

Beer said the last time WA won the youth eights was in Tasmania when Pretorius and Swick were in the boat.

“It’d be a pretty amazing story for women’s rowing in WA if both boats could get on the podium and then if they can take out the wins in both that would be something special,” he said.