Gleeson and Rowe power their way to rowing gold in Italy

New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship athletes Georgina Rowe and Georgie Gleeson were members of the Australian women’s eight crew that powered their way to a World Rowing Cup II gold medal on the idyllic Lake Varese, Italy.

Only three crews contested the final – Australia, Great Britain and Canada – and with Rowe, Gleeson and their teammates setting a mean pace to finish in a time of 06:03.67, the Brits and Canadians were forced to go stroke for stroke in the battle for silver.

Great Britain – with a higher stroke rate – pulled away from the Canadians to claim second place. With only three boats in the race there was no bronze medal on offer.

Speaking on behalf of Lily Alton-Triggs, Paige Barr, Gleeson, Olympia Aldersey, Jacqueline Swick, Molly Goodman, Bronwyn Cox and cox Hayley Verbunt, Rowe said the crew executed on the day.

“We had three really clear focuses for our season, not just today, and we went out there and just executed that and stuck to our race plan,” Rowe said.

“We’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot to improve on but we had a cracking start.

“It’s easy to win a race from the front and it’s also pretty easy to lose one as well. The girls did a really good job to hold onto that lead and try to push away. If you watch the race you can see the British crew and the Canadian crew come back at us and we all just did a really good job to stay internal, push away and focus on what we were doing.”

Australia claimed two other gold medals in a fantastic final day of racing.

The Women’s Coxless Pair and Para Mixed Double sculls also won their finals, while strong racing also delivered silvers in the Women’s Single Scull, Men’s Eight and Men’s Coxless Four, plus two bronze medals in the Men’s Coxless Pair and Women’s Coxless Four.

Annabelle McIntyre and Jess Morrison claimed Australian’s first gold with a cool-headed win over the USA and Spain in the Coxless Pair. In a reunion for the duo, who won gold together at the Tokyo Olympics in Australia’s Women’s Coxless Four lineup, McIntyre said it was exciting to be back together.

“We had something special going in the last cycle and it’s really exciting to be able to work on that again,” she said.

Morrison said her focus was on staying “relaxed and calm” in her calling. “Trying to keep breathing, and let Annabelle do her best in her rhythm and just try to follow that.”

Altschwager and Ayers were next, beating a fast-starting Brazil and Ukraine to win gold in the PPR3 Mixed Double. Altschwager said keeping a cool head helped the pair chased down Brazil.

“We knew they were going to be there in the first 500m or first kilometre, but we also knew where our strength was, later in the race,” he said. “I said it when we got over the finish line, we just kept cool heads, Nikki’s calls were really good, it was just on process.”

Ayers added: “We just stuck to our race plan, backed each other up, and had fun out there. That was the key.”

NSWIS was represented by Patrick Holt, Jackson Kench and Kendell Brodie (the cox) in the Men’s Eight crew that won silver, while the Institute’s athletes Alex Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alex Hill finished with a silver medal for the men’s four.

Another NSWIS athlete Tara Rigney claimed silver in the Women’s Single Scull, while Jospeh O’Brien, a NSWIS scholarship holder, claimed bronze in the men’s Coxless Pair (with Angus Dawson).

Meanwhile, Giorgia Patten, Katrina Werry, Sarah Hawe and Lucy Stephan claimed bronze for Australia in the Women’s Coxless Four.

Some of the crews will now look to the Henley Royal Regatta in England and World Cup III in Lausanne, Switzerland, to continue their journey leading into Olympic qualification at this year’s World Championships in Serbia, in September.

Full list of NSWIS athletes results from the World Cup II regatta in Italy:

A- final Results: Medal Finals

Gold: Women’s Eight – Georgie Gleeson and Georgina Rowe

Silver: Men’s Eight  – Patrick Holt, Jackson Kench and Kendell Brodie (the cox).

Silver: Men’s Four – Alex Purnell, Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves and Alex Hill.

Silver:  Women’s single – Tara Rigney

Bronze: Men’s Pair –  Joseph O’Brien

B- Final results: Non medal finals

First: (7^th overall): Lightweight men’s final: Sean Murphy

Second: (8^th overall): Lightweight women’s double: Lucy Coleman

Second: (8^th overall): Women’s Quad: Rowena Meredith and Harriet Hudson.

NSWIS