Photo credit / World Rowing
Introduction
Welcome to the preview article for the 2024 Victorian state rowing championships. This year’s championships will take place in Ballarat the home of the 1956 Olympic Games. The course sits on the lovely scenic lake Wendouree and runs diagonally across the water through an interesting patch of reeds in the middle. This section of sheltered water is often where critical moves happen away from the prying eyes of spectators, but fortunately Rowing Victoria are providing a live stream of the event, so for any of us unable to see what occurs during that crucial middle thousand on the bank will be able to see it on a screen near the finish line. This year’s state championships sees a fantastic entry from a variety of Victorian clubs and schools competing over three days of rowing, the second year in a row the Friday has been utilised for some of the small boat events. Read on for a preview of each day, and in-depth analysis of the favourites of the school events.
Friday March 1 Preview
The racing on Friday consists mainly of small boat events, all of which are in the U21, lightweight and open categories. With the exception of a small number of school rowers in some of the U21 events, the racing on Friday is dominated by club athletes, almost all of whom are members of their respective club’s high performance programs. For the keen watcher who is able to attend the racing on Friday, there should be some strong performances from some up-and-coming talent who will hope to make their mark on both Victorian rowing and Australian rowing in the future.
With the Australian Olympic and Paralympic trials taking place during this same weekend, the open events are contested by athletes not invited to trials, some of whom are U21, some of whom are U23 and some who are open. Disappointingly there are three events that feature no opposition, two of which are lightweight and one which is the men’s open coxless quad.
Saturday March 2 Preview
The number of entries on Saturday is an extremely healthy 374, featuring 1432 athletes. Only the school single scull features more than 16 entries, meaning all the other events will consist of either a prelim and final or a semi-final and final. This preview will focus on the school events being raced on the day.
The FU21 4x+ is essentially a dress rehearsal for the Schoolgirl quad later in the day, with the exception of a few crews who will not race in both. Winners for this event could come from anywhere, with close racing having occurred at Barwon, Ballarat, and the Nagambie regattas. So far this season we have had winners from MGC, Barwon, Strathcona and Gippsland Grammar, so these are all crews to watch in this event. In the Schoolgirl quad in the afternoon, you can also throw in some strong crews from Ballarat Grammar, Melbourne Girls Grammar School and Ruyton.
The story is similar in the MU21 4x+ with a number of strong school crews present across the board. Early favourites will be Trinity Grammar School Kew, but expect strong challenges from Ballarat Grammar School, Gippsland Grammar, and Melbourne High School. Carey could also throw an unexpected spanner in the works. In the afternoon, division 1 of the Schoolboy quad is contested by only four schools, with the winner again expected to come from a weaker Trinity Crew, Gippsland Grammar, or Ballarat Grammar.
In the male school 8 all the APS schools compete apart from Haileybury, which should see some fantastic racing with some early pre-Head of the River bragging rights on the line. It’s hard to call a winner between Brighton, St Kevins, Xavier, Scotch and Melbourne Grammar. Expect a high standard of racing between all of the boats.
The female school eight features crews from 11 schools, with the likely winners to come from Loreto Toorak, Melbourne Girls Grammar School and St Catherine’s. Realistically it is a two horse race between Toorak and MGGS, which should set up a fantastic tussle later in the season at the Head of the Schoolgirls regatta.
The under-21 events feature a similar variety of crews, with the addition of Melbourne University in both events. MUBC will be looking to put a marker down and ensure they go into the National Championships ahead of the well drilled, but generally smaller, school crews.
In a bit of a sparse field, the standout entrant in the male school single is Rhys Davey. Everyone will be hard-pressed to beat the man from Essendon, with the majority of the higher-level scullers present in either the school double or schoolboy quad.
Speaking of the school double, there are a large variety of strong entrants, with the Gippsland Grammar, Trinity and Melbourne High grudge match welcoming a strong crew from Corio Bay, racing under their school moniker of Western Heights College. These two U17 rowers sparkled at the NSW state championships and will certainly bring a high level of challenge to the other competitors.
In the female school single scull, the 2023 reigning champion, Ella Gerrand, races for Gippsland Grammar. She will be joined by strong rowers from Barwon, MLC Kew, Rutherglen, Sacred Heart and Yarra Yarra. With more depth in the field than the boys event, the racing here is likely to be more exciting.
Over in the schoolgirl double scull 11 entries will compete for the state championship. The early challenges come from Albert Park College and Gippsland Grammar, but the most likely to take out the championship is the McC double of McCarthy and McNeil. This combination were third in the U19 pair at the NSW states, so have formidable speed in their partnership.
Lastly, in the school fours, the traditional Ballarat Schools (minus grammar), Ballarat Clarendon, Ballarat High and St Patricks are joined by crews from Carey and Scotch. The Head of the Lake featured a winning margin for St Pat’s by just 0.18 seconds over Clarendon, so these two crews will be eager to reignite their contest this weekend.
In the schoolgirl four it is a similar story again, with the traditional Ballarat crews joined by Carey, Caulfield, Firbank, Genazzano and Melbourne Girls Grammar School. Ballarat Clarendon continued their streak of wins at the Ballarat Head of the Lake, but expect them to be challenged by a strong contingent from Loreto Ballarat and the MGGS girls.
Sunday March 3 Preview
The racing on Sunday returns to a similar demographic as Friday – largely it is the clubs competing with a dusting of school crews. Unlike when Vic States is at Nagambie, the Sunday in Ballarat understandably features a large number of crews from the local area. These students will be battling it out with some hardened club rowers, with the standout athletes on the day potentially being the high performance rowers from Mercantile and Corio Bay. With no Saturday appearance, those keen on women’s rowing will be excited to see an appearance from Ruyton in some of the grade events. Rowing Victoria will no doubt look at the number of entries in the grade racing, and feel justified in their decision to shorten the A and B racing to 1000m to attract more people to the day. With high entry numbers in a variety of events, the competition should be fantastic for spectators to watch, so long as the wind stays away.
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