Good afternoon and a happy long weekend to you all!

Welcome to this fortnight's Oar Talk newsletter...

  • State Champs Wrap Up
  • The Oar Talk Podcast
  • Welcome Leanne Pool
  • World Masters Games
  • Head of the Shanghai
  • Rower of the Year Awards
    • Club Coach and Volunteer of the Year Nominations
  • Coaching & Officiating Conference
  • End of Season Survey

(P.S. If you like that sort of thing, we've started a Tik Tok account, so look up @rowingwa over there... TBC on how high quality the content will be, but I'm a quick learner, and Gen has promised she'd give me a few tips)

What a weekend!!

TL;DR - It was brilliant, here are the headlines...

  • Fremantle RC win their first ever Championship Women's Eight
  • Swan River RC win their 23rd straight Championship Men's Eight
  • Holly Cannon wins every single Championship Women's event
  • Blake Whyatt & Charlotte Broad are the 2023 Pennant Sculling Ladder Champions
  • All the photos are here for Day 1 and here for Day 2

DAY 1

Hosted by Murdoch University Rowing Club

President Stuart Diggins: "A fantastic day at Champion Lakes today when Murdoch University Rowing Club (MURC) was the host club for Day 1 of the 2023 Western Australian State Rowing Championships. Working with Rowing WA staff and The State's volunteer Boat Race Officials, we saw perfect weather, great competition between the rowers on the water, and a terrific atmosphere throughout the day. As well as helping on the course, MURC members and supporters also offered a wide range of food and drinks for sale to keep hungry rowers fed and fuelled for their competition. Thank you everyone for a great effort. Funds raised by MURC today will go toward a new rowing shell we have on order and due for delivery in the next couple of months. Thanks Rowing WA for allowing us to host today. Congratulations to those rowers who competed today and good luck to all who will compete on Day 2 of the 2023 State Rowing Championships tomorrow, 17th September!"

Day 1 of State Champs saw 47 races between 8am and 3pm, contesting most of the sweep events across all the Pennant grades. We saw some results we expected, and certainly some upsets! The Curtin Womens C8+, unbeaten all Pennant season, were pipped at the post by UWABC in a race that stopped the boat park. Fremantle topped the medal tally - things are looking positive for their run at the top of the Pennant Points tally, but it certainly gave the other clubs something to work for on Sunday!

DAY 2

Hosted by Curtin University Rowing Club

"President Corbett Poynton: The Curtin University Boat Club hosted the second day of the 2023 RWA State Rowing Championships at Champion Lakes on 17th September. It was yet another day characterised by excellent rowing conditions and thrilling races. The catering, as always, was outstanding and exceptionally well-coordinated. Thank you all for your support. We extend our gratitude to RWA, all the dedicated Boat Race Officials, and the selfless volunteer helpers who made this day possible. Congratulations are in order for all the competitors who put in months of hard work leading up to this weekend. Without your dedication and effort, this event would not have been possible. It is important to remember that winners and losers all play a vital role in the world of competition, for without losers, there would be no winner."

The remaining sculling events were all contested on Day 2, plus the B Grade and Championship Eights. A mild crossbreeze developed through the morning and put coaches on edge, but all crews coped professionally - hats off to our younger athletes for taking it in their stride!Shout out to Jacqui Swick (SRRC) and Alex Rossi (WARC) who were back on the scene to jump in their Club Open Eights, having raced their World Championship Finals just 7 days prior!Fremantle continued their trend of topping of the Medal table, but WARC weren’t far behind with 5 Gold, 5 Silver & 5 Bronze medal results by the end of the day’s racing.A standout performance of the weekend was Holly Cannon (Fremantle). In her various crews, Holly won every single Championship Open Womens event on offer - a clean sweep (and scull...)!!

THE BIG ONES

Fremantle Rowing Club won their first ever Championship Women's Eight.

Winning Crew: cox: Angelie Ng, Sina Metzger, Charlotte Hansen-Knarhoi, Charlotte Broad, Holly Cannon, Lyla Fievez, Emma O’Neill, Juliet Kelly, Sarah Newton

Photo: Fremantle Rowing Club

Swan River won their 23rd straight Championship Men’s Eight title.

Winning Crew: cox: Elinor Scott, Perry Ward, Pat Boere, Myles McQuillan, Johnson Daubney, Sam Marsh, Fergus McNamara, James Young, Harper Davies

And finally, an enormous THANK YOU to our Boat Race Officials who worked so hard all weekend (and all season) to bring us organised, fair racing. Thank you to:

Teresa Belcher, Alan Butorac, Wallace Cheung, KG Dassanyake, Luke Forsyth, Andrew Halley, Michael Hawkins, Paul Johnston, Phill Matthews, John Murdoch, Carole Pedri, Kim Richardson, Dean Steadman, Rosalba Vicario-Adams, Brett Woolfitt OAM, Pierre Pougnault, Lynne Bayliss, Geoff Mitchell, Craig James OAM, Michelle Davis

And thank you to every single athlete, coach, volunteer & club supporter who has made this season a special one. Onwards now to Nationals for those who will be competing, the kick-off of the PSA season, and the Head of the Swan in October. 

 

The Oar Talk Podcast

Our new podcast is officially off the ground!!

Hosted by Gen Hart, the pod will be covering regattas & results, interviews with amazing experts and community members, and whatever else we or YOU want it to! 

With hundreds of listens across our two State Champs Preview episodes, safe to say it's kicked off, and we're so excited to record more episodes. Keep an ear out for a State Champs Wrap Up episode, and following that, an in-depth conversation with State Team Rower and now Dietician Eliza Kelly.

It would really help if you followed the podcast on either Apple Podcasts or on Spotify, and give us a 5 Star review - that way it will be suggested to more people, and all the great conversations will be heard by more people!!

Welcome to the team, Leanne!

Leanne joins us as our new Finance and Administration Officer. Her background as a qualified accountant, working in school, and being a Swimming mum makes her the absolute perfect person for this role and we are loving having her in the office. Leanne grew up on a farm down South but moved to Perth for Uni, where she has worked in finance for many years. She will be able to help you with all your accounts queries!

She might even be a bit of an adrenaline junkie... we'll wait and see!!

Leanne is reachable at admin@rowingwa.asn.au, or just give the office a call or pop in to say hi!

World Masters Regatta

On the waters of the Roodeplaat Dam, South Africa, the world's biggest gathering of Masters Rowers is underway!!

SRRC rower Simone Burge, and ANA athletes Elissa Mansell, Rene Brovelli and Club Captain Mark Easterbook, have travelled across to take on Masters crews from dozens of countries.

The regatta is off to a fantastic start for our WA rowers - Rene and Elissa earned a Gold Medal in the Women's C Double Scull on Thursday, Rene won the WB4x with her South African teammates, Mark earned a Bronze in the MC2x, and the All-Australian composite crew with all our ladies in it came 2nd in the WD8+.

Photo: Detlev Syeb/World Rowing

Mark has penned a fantastic blog entry which details how he was drawn back to rowing, and how preparing for and competing at this regatta has been years in the making - a vulnerable and enjoyable read.

 

You can keep up with all the results of the regatta on the event website here.

Becky & Riley compete in Shanghai

Rebecca Pretorius and Riley Rees-Turner (both SRRC) were invited to compete with other Under 23 Australian Team Sweep rowers in the Head of the Shanghai River regatta last week. 

Competing against eights from world-renowned Cambridge and Oxford Brookes university crews, they competed in a 4.2km Head Race and a 500m Sprint in the middle of the metropolis. 

Off the back of their Under 23 success in the middle of the year, this was a great opportunity to put their fitness to great use in a fun trip somewhere new. The Women's Eight won both events, and the Men's Eight won the Head Race but were beaten to the line for 2nd place in the Sprint. Congratulations Becky, Riley & your teammates for a brilliant show of strength!

And the cherry on top of a free trip to China? The crews won some pretty significant prize money  - about $10,000AUD for the win - a pretty foreign concept to Aussie athletes but one which no doubt will go a long way for these full-time athletes.

You can read a detailed article here. 

Tickets on sale for Rower of the Year!

October 21

6pm til late

Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club

Tickets strictly limited and on sale now: Book Here


 

Club Coach of the Year & Volunteer of the Year

Research shows that showing appreciation to volunteers is a key part of what keeps them coming back to their roles season after season. It supports a positive & rewarding experience for them, and encourages others to take up volunteering roles in your club.

Club coaches are a huge part of what makes our sporty world spin around. WIthout them, we wouldn't be able to run Learn to Rows, help our club athletes improve and feel supported, and any number of other miscellanous but critical club activities.

Maybe it's someone who has done a huge amount of behind-the-scenes work on the committee, who has towed the trailer to every single regatta for the past four years, who's been the driving force behind your LTR or Novice program... But in every situation, they're people who give, and give, and give for the benefit of our clubs.

We want to celebrate those who underpin our sport - all nominees will be publicly acknowledged at the ROTY awards & on our social media!

Get your nominations in by midnight, September 29!

Nominate someone for Club Coach of the Year here

Nominate someone for Volunteer of the Year here

Our challenge to you is to nominate at least one, and to recieve one of each type from each club.

Coaching & Officiating Conference

The Coaching & Officiating Conference is coming along very nicely & we're very excited about this year's event.

Judith will be presenting after lunch - plenty of time for anyone who's coaching in the morning to come in and find their seat!! Her session on Building Exceptional School Programs - based on her experience at St Augustine's in Sydney - is a must-see for anyone with an interest in how a great program can be built and bettered.

All the important info is here!

End of Season Survey

If you've ever had a single thought about how rowing can be improved here in WA, boy oh boy do I have an offer for you... 

For zero cost and just a few minutes of your time, you can tell us directly what you think about all this stuff and more!!

Maybe you've thought, gosh, I wish we had less regattas but they were all longer so we could race the same number of events?

How about - jeez this Age Based Regatta is a great idea but I reckon they should think about a few tweaks?

Maybe even - I wish we raced 2000m at the All Schools regattas?

Let us know your feedback HERE!

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