Image Credit: Rowing New South Wales
There have been plenty of Australian representatives in the men’s quad from out west. Jack Cleary won Olympic bronze in Tokyo with Caleb Antill, Cameron Girdlestone, and Luke Letcher. Cleary and fellow West Australian Rowing Club member Alex Rossi were part of the unsuccessful Australian crew that failed to qualify at this year’s Final Qualification Regatta in Lucerne. With the dust settling on a poor Paris Olympic Games for Australia and retirements expected, plenty will be looking to keep that tradition of Western Australian rowers in the Australian quad.
West Australian Rowing Club ‘A’
The crew to beat at this year’s state championships is the WARC gang of Joshua Hantke, Lachlan Brown, Dejan Bouwhuis and Alex Rossi. Having won both Pennant Regattas 1 and 3 (Blake Whyatt in for Brown in Pennant Regatta 1), Rossi is evidently looking to demonstrate why he should stay in the national squad. Not only that, after a 13-second win at this regatta last season, Hantke and Bouwhuis will also be keen to make it back-to-back wins. Therefore, with the whole crew serious about proving a point this regatta, they are not to be taken lightly.
West Australian Rowing Club ‘B’
There’s a mix of experience in the second WARC crew of Adam Round, Tom Zawalnyski, Joe Dawson and Riley Flecker. Dawson and Flecker have rowed A & B grades for a number of seasons, while Round and Zawalynski have generally rowed over 1000m this season. They’ve not rowed as a crew in this year’s pennant regatta, making them somewhat of an unknown for this race. With the ‘A’ boat from their club present here, clearly, they are not going for a win, yet they must believe getting two boats on the podium would be quite the spectacle. Unfortunately, with the lack of 2000m experience they have as a crew, it may be a challenge.
University of Western Australia
So far this season, we have yet to see the full UWA crew of Connor Brace, Oliver Cliff, Ben Clayton, and Ahren Den Ouden. Cliff, Clayton, and Ouden teamed up with Isaac Hamilton in Pennant Regatta 1 to finish 8 seconds back from the WARC crew. Meanwhile, Brace and Cliff raced with Ethan Bromley and Hamilton in Pennant Regatta 3. That crew finished well back, so it will be interesting to see where this crew will end up. I am sure the podium will be at the forefront of their minds, so let’s see what they can accomplish.
Swan River Rowing Club
Although no one has really pushed the crew from WARC so far this year, Swan River got the closest. Patrick Boere, Rohan James, James Young and Sam Marsh will be out for an upset under the wise guidance of coach Mark Beer. James, Young, Marsh and Fergus McNamara got within four seconds of WARC at Pennant Regatta 3 – a margin that is not impossible to make up. Nevertheless, they’ll have to be at their very best to do so.
Fremantle Rowing Club
Another crew looking to sneak onto the podium are Fremantle‘s Liam R. Davis, Jacob Cassey, Jack Hansen-Knarhoi and Jacob Sangster. Davis and Sangster, along with Liam M. Davis and Oscar Lourie, finished second, around six seconds back from WARC in Pennant Regatta 1. Davis and Cassey were interstate representatives last year in the men’s and youth men’s eights, so there’s plenty of speed to be found from them. This crew were also silver medalists at last year’s state championships, with Austin Vincent in for Sangster. With so little having changed in the crew since then, they’ll be looking to match or even better their previous performance, so are definitely one to watch.
Prediction
It’s difficult to go past the WARC crew for the gold. They’re unbeaten in the quad this year with some handy margins too. It’s between Swan River and Fremantle for the minor placings, with not much separating those two for the podium ahead of UWA and the WARC ‘B’ crew.
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