The Australian Rowing Team has opened its 2026 campaign in sensational fashion, with the Women\u2019s Eight winning the Gold Medal at World Cup I in Seville, Spain.<\/p>\n
In a commanding performance in Sunday\u2019s A-Final, the crew led for much of the race to claim Australia\u2019s first\u00a0women\u2019s\u00a0international A-Final victory of the new Olympic cycle.<\/p>\n
The highlight of the final day for Australia was the win by Australia\u2019s Women\u2019s Eight. But Australia also won the Silver Medal in the Women\u2019s Four A-Final, and the Women\u2019s Pair of Katherine Easton and Emmie Frederico placed fifth in their A-Final.<\/p>\n
Australia also shone in the two B-Finals it was represented in on Sunday. New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder Tara Rigney OLY won the B-Final of the Women\u2019s Single Sculls for a 7th\u00a0place ranking in what was her first international regatta since her fourth at the 2024 Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n
Australia also placed an impressive second in the B-Final of the Women\u2019s Quadruple Sculls for an 8th\u00a0place ranking in their debut international regatta together as a crew.<\/p>\n
It was an impressive display by the Australian Women\u2019s team, in its first regatta since leaving left the cool climes of Australia for the heat of Europe on May 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe women\u2019s team have shown both their class and potential here in\u00a0Seville,\u201d RA Performance Director Paul Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0Eight and\u00a0Four are fighting at the front of the field, the\u00a0Pair is in the A Final, Tara\u00a0has\u00a0improved with each race as she comes back from a break and the youngsters in the quad were competitive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe racing always gets tighter as the season progresses and\u00a0the women\u00a0can prepare for that with confidence from what they achieved in Seville.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Women\u2019s Eight,\u00a0the Australian crew of Georgie Gleeson (bow), Eliza Gaffney (2), Lily Triggs OLY (3), Ella Bramwell (4), Samantha Morton (5), Paige Barr OLY (6), Jaime Ford (7, NSWIS), Laura Gourley OLY (s, NSWIS) and Hayley Verbunt OLY (coxswain) raced\u00a0their Semi-Final\u00a0in Lane 4, had a terrific start\u00a0and were second at 500m, 0.62 behind Romania.<\/p>\n
However, the Ellen Randell-coached Australians, who were third in Friday\u2019s Preliminary race to determine the lane draw, powered on\u00a0to take the lead by 750m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were just thinking,\u00a0\u2018hit the start hard, try get into a rhythm, emulate or wind \u2026\u2019\u00a0I\u2019d say we executed pretty well,\u201d Samantha Morton, the 5 Seat, told\u00a0Worldrowing.com.<\/p>\n
At 1000m, Australia was still just in front, by 0.16 over Netherlands in second place and 0.58 on third placed Great Britain who are coached by Randell\u2019s brother, Andy.<\/p>\n
As tight as the race was, Australia responded to the pressure of an expected challenge from their opposition superbly. Instead of waiting for it, Australia unleashed a major effort in the third 500m under the call from coxswain Hayley Verbunt to extend their lead by 1500 to 0.84 over Netherlands and 1.08 over Great Britain.<\/p>\n
As Paige Barr, the 6 Seat, told\u00a0Worldrowing.com\u00a0of their approach to the second 1000\u00a0metres: \u201cIn the \u2018prelim,\u2019 we did have a good second \u2018K.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we wanted to really make the most of that and hit it even harder, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s reward for their calm, control and courage was\u00a0a terrific\u00a0win (6:08.35) over Netherlands (6:09.76) in second and Great Britain (6:10.25),\u00a0in\u00a0third. Romania (6:12.20) and Germany (6:20.71) followed in fourth and fifth\u00a0places\u00a0respectively.<\/p>\n
For the Australian Eight it was the best start to the international season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a new crew, some fresh faces. We\u2019re working at the chemistry, but it\u2019s clicking well, and this is massive confidence in the bank for what\u2019s to come,\u201d said Morton.<\/p>\n
For Barr, even better \u2026 Sunday was her birthday!<\/p>\n
\u201cA very good way to celebrate my birthday,\u201d she said. \u201cHuge day. Best birthday ever. It\u2019s great to do it with the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Women\u2019s Four,\u00a0Australia won the Silver Medal in their A-Final in a magnificent tussle with Netherlands who had to fight from behind to take the lead in the third 500m to win.<\/p>\n
Racing in Lane 4, the crew of Georgia Patten OLY (bow), Bronwyn Cox OLY (2), Jacqueline Swick OLY, and Georgie Rowe OLY (stroke, NSWIS) led from the start.<\/p>\n
But it was clear their Dutch opponents would be up for the challenge as the gap between the two crews was 0.70 at 500m and 0.16 at 1000m in Australia\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
It was in the third 500m that Netherlands threw the gauntlet down to take the lead from the James Harris-coached Australians. With 1250m raced, Netherlands just managed to edge their bow in front, and at 1500m the gap between them was 0.73. Meanwhile, New Zealand\u00a0were\u00a0the best of the rest to be\u00a0third\u00a0at 4.08s to the two leaders.<\/p>\n
However, while the Dutch had impressively asserted themselves, by no means did Australia capitulate. As Australia\u2019s rate rose to 40 strokes per minute, the gap between them and Netherlands narrowed with every stroke, and suddenly the Dutch found themselves having to respond and increase their rate to 44 strokes per minute.<\/p>\n
Crossing the finish, the gap between the Gold Medal winners, Netherlands (6:34.92) and second placed Silver Medallists Australia (6:35.45) was a canvass \u2013 or 0.53. Meanwhile, New Zealand (6:43.24) finished in third place to take the Bronze Medal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Rowing Team has opened its 2026 campaign in sensational fashion, with the Women\u2019s Eight winning the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-709256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}