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• Olympics

  • Live Site

• U23 & U19 World Championships

• Pennant Table

• Club Development Session

• Coastal Update

• Indoor State Champs

• Club Corner

  • FRC Missing Oars

  • FRC Hiring Senior Coach

• Rowing WA Board Updates

Cover photo: The WA Olympic Women! Credit: Bronnie Cox.

Oh we are so on!!

Just four days until the A Finals of the Olympic Games Regatta begin. 1098 days since the last opportunity for athletes to become Olympic Champions. And 1447 days until their next opportunity!

If you were brave enough to wake up at 1am to watch the Opening Ceremony, you'll have witnessed a procession of national teams winding down the Seine, Celine Dion making a triumphant return to showbusiness, and a poorly-timed rain band. Some athletes including rowers weren't there - it finished at 3am Paris time, and with the regatta beginning the next day, it simply wasn't worth the risk. The rowers and paddlers - staying at the Château de Guermantes about 35km out of Paris - held their own DIY Opening Ceremony instead.

Photo: The four WA women made sure to get a photo!! #YeahWA!!

Heats

Out of the three crews with WA representation, Annabelle's pair is the only one who has raced and OMG what a start it was. Martin Cross called it a 'slow start' (you should have seen the reaction to that in the group chat..) but we knew their experience meant they would row the race they planned. Those crews with less experience would be more likely to let the adrenaline get to them, get out faster than planned, get excited that they were beating Australia, and sit on an unsustainable pace. True to form, Jess and Annabelle took the lead swiftly and continued to build on that for the remaining 1500m, clocking the fastest qualifying time of all the heats. 

Photo: Annabelle and Jess racing their heat. AAP via Photosport: Iain McGregor

In an interview with the AOC, the pair reported:

"Technically we can improve parts of our stroke and adapt to the conditions differently than we did today... There are different parts of the race, where we can make tactical moves and find speed more efficiently, that's the art of rowing and we're always looking to improve that." - Jess

Annabelle said the quality of the Olympic field would make for exciting semi-finals. "We've seen over the last couple of years all boat classes have gotten faster and in particular the women's pair... I can think off the top of my head four or five different boats that are going to be really hard to beat this year so it's pretty exciting." - Annabelle

The Men's Eight race their heat tonight at 5:50pm and the Women's Eight at 6:00pm AWST.

World Rowing has comprehensive regatta website where you can follow everything: https://worldrowing.com/event/2024-olympic-games-regatta/

DRAW

Sure, you COULD watch the Olympic racing on your phone, by yourself on the couch...

OR! you could join us at The Rowing Pavilion - every and any night of the games, for FREE, to watch it on the big screen with the rest of the rowing community there to share the joy?!

Option two definitely sounds like more fun.

We're running an official Olympic Live Site in collaboration from the wonderful people at the Pav!

There's a huge big screen on the balcony, where we'll be able to watch every second of the racing live! The balcony area is now fully heated and closed in if the weather gets chilly!

Bookings are preferred so the Pav can organise staff etc. appropriately - if you reckon you, your club or your mates are going to head along, consider booking a balcony table at therowingpavilion.com.au and put 'rowing' in the comments section.

Feel free to just rock up if you've missed out on a table - you may not get a seat but you can grab a drink and watch the big screen anyway!

It's an exciting few weeks for our Aussie reps - the Olympics are front of mind, but our Under 23 and Under 19s have been hard at work training in preparation for the combined U23 and U19 World Championships! This huge competition, taking place 18 - 25 August in St Catherines, Canada, is combined as a result of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In Olympic years, Senior categories are included in this World Champs only in non-Olympic/Paralympic boat classes (the Lightweight Single, Pair and Quad, plus PR3 Singles and Pairs). 

The following WA athletes are heading to Canada this week for a pre-competition training camp:

Gen Hart (FRC) - Under 23 Womens Coxless Four

Becky Pretorius (SRRC) - Under 23 Womens Coxless Four

Ben Scott (FRC/Harvard) - Under 23 Mens Eight

Alex Baroni (WARC/Cal Berkeley) - Under 23 Mens Eight

Sina Metzger (FRC) - Under 19 Womens Quad

Juliet Kelly (FRC) - Under 19 Womens Quad

Greta Spencer (SRRC) - Under 19 Womens Coxless Four

Lyla Fievez (SRRC) - Under 19 Womens Coxless Four

We are so excited to follow these crews as they head into competition and will be sure to keep you all updated!!

You can find more information here at World Rowing's website.

Follow Rowing WA's Instagram page for the best local updates.

Pennant Point Standings: 29 July 2024 (post All-Schools #3)

*Rowing WA Pennant for overall club is calculated on the aggregate percentage of points in each grade, not just overall points.

We have been extremely fortunate to engage Lisa Purves, Director - Safeguarding at Sport Integrity Australia, to deliver a Club Development session for our members. Lisa oversees the Child Safeguarding area of the National Integrity Framework, and as we know this can be a complex topic that raises many questions. Lisa will deliver a presentation that will provide information around what clubs should prioritise in this space, and there will be opportunities to discuss any questions.

Register here

Venue: UWA Watersports Complex 

Date: 1 August

Time: 6:30 - 7:30pm

Child Safeguarding is crucial to keeping our sport a welcoming and safe place for children and young people, and this is an incredible opportunity to tap into Lisa's expert knowledge.

This session aims to leave you clear-minded and at ease with your club's plans and processes, not to overwhelm you with "more stuff to do"!

Thank you to our Major Partners, Healthway and Act Belong Commit for their support of the 2024 Club Development series!

Rowing WA has recently taken delivery of our fleet of coastal rowing boats, which are now sitting out at Champion Lakes ready for the custom Coastal Boat Trailer to be manufactured - this will allow us to transport the boats to clubs and venues all over WA.

In the mean time, we will be running a number of Coastal activations out at Champion Lakes, and have a series of mini-regattas in the works for Summer! Keep an eye out on Rowing WA social media over the next few weeks for those opportunities!

The 2024 WA Indoor State Championships were held in mid July with great success! Thank you to Fremantle Rowing Club for their excellent hosting, and the Swan Yacht Club for supporting this event year after year. There was plenty of interest, with some athletes choosing to take on the ultimate challenge of entering every event they could, some just opting in for the adrenaline-filled relay sections. 

Other highlights included:

Richard Wassell (Independent) broke the World Record for PR3-SA (Single Arm) 2000m (55-59) in a time of 8:46.5!

Antarctic researchers from Casey Station took part virtually - one of their 'keep sane' strategies down there is to jump on an ergo! The photo below shows their setup during their row - check out the Olympic regatta on the projector as motivation!!

Joely Patterson won the Fastest Female 2000m in 7:10.8

Harry Fox won the Fastest Male 2000m in 5:58.2

From FRC:

"Dear Rowing Community,

Following the recent Perth to Freo race, it has come to our attention that two sweep oars, one bowside and one strokeside, have been misplaced and may have been inadvertently taken by another club. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of these oars or if you have found them amond your equipment, please reach out to Keely at captain@fremantlerowing.com. Your assistance in resolving this matter is greatly apprecaited. Attached is a photo of the missing oars for reference. Thank you for your cooperation."

Fremantle RC are hiring a full time Senior Rowing Coach to complement their coaching team. 

Role Description:

In conjunction with the FRC Committee, lead and implement strategies to achieve sustainable success for Fremantle Rowing Club athletes rowing at national selection level, development squads and at club level. Provide intensive, high quality training, support services and competition opportunities to athletes on High Performance (HP) programmes, Talent Identification Programmes and in Club training programmes including junior athletes.

More information can be found here

Applications close 31 July.

Rowing WA would like to welcome two new directors to the RWA Board, Sue Peacock and Adam Ramshaw. Both Sue and Adam join the Board with extensive experience and knowledge of rowing at a range of levels including rowing, coaching and club administration. As well as rowing for Australia as a lightweight, Sue has had a distinguished career as a media executive, where she is currently a producer for the ABC. Adam came to rowing later in life, but has sat on club committees for many years. He has decades of business and corporate leadership experience, at a national and international level. We look forward to their involvement in governing the sport of rowing in WA in the future.

Read more here.

PBR's WA representative Rene Brovelli now has a variety of amazing Demo Boats available for interested buyers to come and have a look!

Rene is aiming to be out at as many regattas as she can this season with her big blue tent & boats on display - make sure you say hi!

They have also now partnered with Handy Pay to offer finance with a simple payment plan for private buyers, from $2001 - $75,000! More info on this: https://www.perfectbalancerowing.com/finance