Australia selects Olympic challengers

Australia is one of rowing’s powerhouses with a fruitful Olympic history across almost every boat class. The current team boasts Drew Ginn, going for his fourth Olympic gold medal as well as a plethora of medallists from the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled in which Australia emerged as the third ranked nation on the medals table.

Most of last year’s World medallists arrived at the selection regatta confident that their boats would remain unchanged but they were still put through their paces in a series of time trials. Other boat classes had some hard fought selection battles that reshaped many crews.

Here are the selected crews:

Lightweight men’s four
Todd Skipworth, Benjamin Cureton, Samuel Beltz, Anthony Edwards
The crew stays the same as the 2011 World Champions line-up. After a superb showing in Bled in a very competitive lightweight fours field, this crew move towards London as one of the favourites for Olympic gold.

Men’s quadruple sculls
Daniel Noonan, Karsten Forsterling, James McRae, Chris Morgan

Looking to add Olympic gold to their World Championship gold from Bled last year, the men’s quad remains unchanged. Stroked by the impervious Dan Noonan, the crew is ready to contend with a German crew who will be out to seek revenge after last year’s tight final.

Men’s double sculls
Scott Brennan, David Crawshay

The reigning Olympic Champions are back and have been given the blessing to defend their crown. In 2008, they flew in under the radar and took a victory that surprised many. This time around they will go into the Olympic season as marked men.

Men’s four
Joshua Dunkley-Smith, Drew Ginn, James Chapman, William Lockwood
Retaining half of the crew that claimed bronze in Bled, the men’s four selection was one of the most keenly awaited. This boat-class has an illustrious Olympic history for Australia after the 1996 Olympics when the “Oarsome Foursome” won and one member of that crew, Drew Ginn, is back in the boat. Ginn’s 2008 Olympic gold partner in the pair, Duncan Free was hoping to be part of the crew but injury forced him out of trials. This crew goes to London looking to topple home favourites, Great Britain.

Men’s eight
Bryn Coudraye, Matthew Ryan, Nicholas Purnell, Thomas Swann, Joshua Booth, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, Francis Hegerty, Samuel Loch, Tobias Lister (coxswain)
Australia finished fourth in the final in Bled having taken home a bronze from Karapiro the year before. The battle for seats was intense with no less than six rotations over the two weeks. Head Coach, Noel Donaldson, was satisfied with his selection saying, “the strength of the crew is underlined by the quality of athletes that narrowly missed recommendation.” The crew set a new best time for the Sydney regatta course during trials.

Men’s pair (to be picked from the following squad)
Brodie Buckland, James Marburg, Duncan Free, Fergus Pragnell, Thomas Larkins
Two pairs will race at the World Rowing Cup II and after that the final selection will be made. Reigning Olympic Champion in this boat class, Duncan Free has had to overcome a bike accident and more recently a rib fracture to make it into the squad. There is no doubt that if Free is on form and healthy, he will add significant speed to a squad already made up of Olympic medallists such as James Marburg.

Women’s double sculls
Kim Crow, Brooke Pratley
Kim Crow is in seriously good form at the moment. The current World silver Medallist in this category has shown herself to be head and shoulders above the rest and it came down to who would be selected to row with her. Last year, Tasmanian Kerry Hore partnered Crow to some impressive results and were the only crew to threaten the British double of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins. After intensive trials, Hore has now been replaced by Brooke Pratley, a 2006 World Champion in this boat class. Pratley is back to try to claim gold with Crow on the same course where she took the World title.

Women’s pair
Sarah Tait, Kate Hornsey

The seats in the women’s pair were always going to be hotly contested. Three athletes were going for two seats. Phoebe Stanley, who was sidelined just before the Worlds in Bled for medical reasons, was replaced by Kate Hornsey at the eleventh hour and Hornsey went on with Sarah Tait to take a surprise bronze medal. This set up a selection dilemma for this year’s Olympic campaign. After months of training together as a threesome, selectors deemed the Hornsey/Tait combination to be the quickest.

Lightweight women’s double sculls
Hannah Every-Hall, Bronwyn Watson
After a fifth place finish in a closely fought World final last year, Australia have every chance of stepping on the Olympic podium in London. Hannah Every-Hall has been in this boat for the last two years and has been selected with Bronwyn Watson who has replaced Alice McNamara. Watson came out of retirement to secure her first Olympic appearance.

Women’s quadruple sculls
Kerry Hore, Philippa Savage, Pauline Frasca, Dana Faletic
After a missing out narrowly on a bronze medal last year in Bled, the women’s quad has been completely revamped and a new look crew will take the water in 2012. Kerry Hore comes out of last year’s double and she will be backed up with the experience of Dana Faletic, a bronze medallist in this event in Athens 2004.

Rowing Australia also selected three unqualified crews to contest the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne.

Men’s single sculls
Jared Bidwell
A 2009 silver medallist in the men’s quad, Canberra student Jared Bidwell has been tasked with finishing in the top three at the final qualification regatta.

Lightweight men’s double sculls
Roderick Chisholm, Thomas Gibson
Chisholm and Gibson represented Australia in Beijing and will take that experience to attempt to qualify in, arguably, one of the most challenging events in terms of Olympic qualification. A top two finish is needed to secure their berth for London.

Women’s eight
Phoebe Stanley, Hannah Vermeersch, Alexandra Hagan, Sally Kehoe, Tess Gerrand, Renee Chatterton, Emma McCarthy, Sarah Cook, Amy Clay, Robyn Selby Smith, Elizabeth Patrick (coxswain)
The women’s eight is made up of exceptional athletes who narrowly missed the cut in the other boat classes, combined with a dedicated sweep group who has been training with Olympic qualification in mind in the women’s eight. The sheer talent in this crew suggests they have every chance of making it to London.

The Australian Rowing Team will compete at the World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland (May 25–27) and the World Rowing Cup II in Munich, Germany (June 15–17) before athletes are nominated to the Australian Olympic Committee.

Paralympic Games selection:

ASM1x
Erik Horrie

Last year’s bronze medallist in Bled, Eric Horrie, 32, only took up rowing in 2010 and is already aiming for gold on the Paralympic stage.

TAMix2x
John McLean, Gavin Bellis, Kathryn Ross
Final selection of the crew will be made after the adaptive regatta in Varese, Italy in April.