Blades of Blue · Winter Regatta Season We are coming to the pointy end of the regatta season with...

Swan River Rowing Club Newsletter Inside this Issue

Winter Season 1

Curtin Regatta 2-3

Youth Cup 4

Junior World Champs 5

U 23 Worlds Champs 5

Swan’s Regatta 6-7

Family Friendly 10

School Girls Rowing 11

UWA Regatta 8-9

World Masters 12

Fund Raising 11

Who’s Boots 12

Blades of Blue

25 Aug 2011

Volume 1, Issue 2

Contact Us

2 The Esplanade Mt Pleasant WA 6153

(08) 9316 8812 http://www.srrc.org.au

President

Ian Boserio [email protected]

Club Captain Peter Doyle

[email protected]

Secretary Hilary Smale

[email protected]

Newsletter Editors Nancy Lyche

[email protected]

Barbara Outhwaite

Winter Regatta Season

We are coming to the pointy end of the regatta season with only the Bunbury and the State Championship left. We had been making a steady climb up the points ladder, but after our lacklustre performance at the Curtin Regatta, we find ourselves just barely holding on to third place in the standings. UWA is nipping at our heals to take over 3rd place.

At the Curtin Regatta our sub junior members kept the club from dropping out of third place with their stellar per-formances. However, given the overall results, we have some work to do as a club. To finish the 2011 Pennant Re-gatta Season in the top 3 clubs, your input is needed, so it’s time for every-one to step up!

With the 3 regattas left in the season we can get there with your help. We need each and everyone of you to sign up for as many races as you think you can do at the regattas. Most of all we need you to turn up to the races. Swannies has gained quite a reputation for the large number of scratchings and “did not starts” at the recent regattas. Each one of the scratchings and “did not starts” costs the clubs not only in points, but in dollars as well. At the Swans Regatta we were the lowest per-forming club, with only 69% starts from our registered races.

On the positive side, the Swans Regatta went off without a hitch. There were

many volunteers on the day and many thanks to those who pitched in to help. A special thank you to Hillary Smale who or-ganised all the cater-

ing for the regatta and even had time on the day to row as well as spend time in the commentary booth. Also thanks to Mike Hinsley who organised all the races on the day on his own. That is no easy feat. We received very positive comments throughout the day and a 10 out of 10 from the officials for our organisation and per-formance of the regatta. Well done Swanies!

Can you put a face in the shed to one of these ugg boots . Answers on page 12.

Blades of Blue Swan River Rowing Club Newsletter

25 Aug 2011 of 12

Curtin Regatta - 13 Aug 2011


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Curtin Regatta - 13 Aug 2011

Women’s E Double Scull - Lane 1: Jenny Watson Vanessa Pieruigi and Lane 2: Jess Fitzgerald and Tess Hillard

Men’s Sub Junior Scull - Declan Thornton


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2011 Australian Youth Cup

The 2011 Australian Youth Cup Championship was held at the Pen-rith Olympic Rowing Centre 8-10 July. The Youth Cup is for under 21 rowers. The aim of the Youth Cup is to create a ‘stepping stone’ event in the athlete (and coach) development pathway, that bridges the gap between the International Junior and U23 teams.

Each of the States, plus the ACT, New Zealand and Vanuatu brought a team to the championships. This was the first international event for the Vanuatu team. It was quite an experience for most of the Vanuatu rowers. Many of the rowers had never been on an airplane before and the course they train on is only 400m long. This was the first time their rowers rowed a full 2000m race.

Each State’s men’s and women’s team consisted of 6 open class rowers, 3 lightweight rowers (including a reserve) and a cox. Each member of the team rowed in a small boat, quad/four and an eight.

Caine Bristow, Alex Lyche, Dave Watts, and Kate Woodall repre-sented Swans at the Championship

for WA.

Alex and Dave both took home 2 silver medals. They won silver in the Men’s Coxless Pair Division 1 and Men’s Coxless Four. They lost out to New Zealand for the gold in both races. Who invited New Zea-land to the Australian Youth Cup anyway? The New Zealand Na-tional Team took out the overall Cup for the weekend.

The Penrith course was impressive and provided an opportunity for the rowers to row at one of the best facilities in the world.

The early morning weather was a bit of surprise for some of the row-ers, especially on Saturday morning with sub zero temperatures. If you think the Australian rowers were cold, just think of the poor Vanua-tuan rowers who may have never been in anything colder then 20 C before. That morning there was ice on the boats and the pontoons had to be hosed down to remove the ice.

All in all it was a good weekend of racing and competition and a time to make new friendships and re-new old ones.

Men’s Coxless Four—Silver Medal Dave Watts (Stroke) and Alex Lyche (2 Seat)

Women's Coxless Quad Kate Woodall (3 Seat)

Ice on the Boats in the Morning

Men’s Eight Caine Bristow (3 Seat), Alex Lyche (5 Seat)

and Dave Watts (Stroke)


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2011 Juniors World Championships

Women’s Junior Coxless Four Natasha Gay (3 Seat) and Lilly Tinapple (2 Seat)

The Junior World Championships were held in Eaton Eng-land this year. Two Swanies, Natasha Gay and Lilly Tinapple, represented Australia. Both rowed in the cox-less four trained by Swannies own Jamie Jones.

After completing a week of preparation in the rain at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, the team moved on to Eton for a final week of training before the Champion-

ships.

The Junior World Championships event is the highlight of every year for Australia's talented crop of junior rowers as they battle it out against the world’s best. Australia’s program has focused on the same boat classes in the last couple of years and it is a structure that Rowing Australia believe will reap dividends both now and in the future.

The regatta also gave London the chance to showcase its Olympic venue and everyone in-volved was excited to be part of the official test event.

The girls crew finished 1st in the B Final, after a heart breaking 3rd place finish in the repechage. Their finish was especially painful, since their time in their repechage would have placed them in first place in the other repechage.

A bright spot on the Australia Junior team was the Men’s Coxed Four team, who took home the gold medal.

2011 Under 23 World Championships

The Under 23 World Championships were held at the Bosbaan Regatta Course in Amsterdam this year. Two Swanies, Brendan Murray and Tom Gatti, represented Australia rowing in the Men’s Eight. Both Brendan and Tom have been living and training in Adelaide since the selection trials in April getting ready for Amsterdam.

In the opening ceremony for the event, parachut-ists flew through the skies, canons exploded and athletes were welcomed, it was a evening to re-member for rowers and fans alike.

The rain came in fits and starts, but still all were warmly welcomed to the Bosbaan Regatta Course. One athlete from each country carried an oar, and paraded in front of the crowds to symbol-ise their participation in the World Rowing Under 23 Championships. Following this, three para-chutists fell through the skies to land in the Bos-baan lake, carrying a FISA flag, the national flag of The Netherlands, and the flag of the Dutch Na-tional Rowing Federation.

The Men’s Eight finished first in the B final. The medal winners for Australia were the Women’s Quad with a bronze medal, including new Swan-nies member Alex Hagan.

Men’s Coxed Eight Brendan Murray (Bow) and Tom Gatti (2 Seat)


25 Aug 2011 of 12

Swans Regatta Results - 23 Jul 2011


25 Aug 2011 of 12

Swans Regatta Results - 23 Jul 2011

Manning the BBQ: Bill Tinapple, Alan Nicoll and Serge Gay

President and Barista – Ian Boserio Amazing Sight: Champion Lakes Boat Breaking in Half Near the Finish Line


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UWA Regatta - 25 June 2011


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Rowing Australia Gets Family Friendly

The national federation announced that it would spend $300,000 over the next two years to help the part-ners and children of athletes and coaches join them at the Australian Institute of Sport's European train-ing base in Varese, Italy, during ex-tended training camps.

The money will come from the Fed-eral Government's Green and Gold Project, funds designed to maximise the Australian medal tally at next year's London Olympics.

But instead of spending the extra funds on coaching, equipment, competition or sports science, row-ing will pay for family reunions.

However contrary to first appear-ances, Rowing Australia and the Australian Sports Commission re-veal that this is a hard-headed deci-sion designed to keep mature ath-letes in the sport and help them manage the competing commit-ments in their lives.

"We have such mature athletes - 28 is the average age of a gold medal-list - and a lot of them have kids so they have family pressures," Rowing Australia CEO Andrew Dee said.

"In the past we have lost many tal-ented rowers who have been un-able to continue their careers in rowing as they started families. We have never had a mum go to the Olympics so we think we are falling short of what we can do in a per-formance sense to help them reach their ultimate peak.

"It's really about sustainability. We put so much time and effort and money into turning them into elite

athletes that the longer we can keep them in the sport the better return we get on our investment."

"It sounds like a lot of money but in the context of an investment in a four or eight-year cycle it's not much. And we can do this in Varese where it won't compromise the training en-vironment."

Six senior rowers are parents, in-cluding Swan’s Sarah Tait.

The Australian team will spend three months in Europe training for this year's world championships, and another three months in Varese next year in the lead-up to the London Olympics where it is targeting three gold medals.

The sport's guardians are convinced that this program will make a bigger difference to its ultimate perform-ance in London than throwing extra money at more traditional training aids.

Although Cricket Australia has regu-larly allowed players' families to join them at points during long interna-tional tours, rowing is the first Olym-pic sport to introduce a formal pro-gram to address their athletes' needs in this area.

"I think we in Australia have reached a level of sophistication where we recognise that they are human be-ings, not just athletes," Fiona de Jong, Australian Olympic Committee sports director said.

"If this prevents people from drop-ping out of the system it's a worth-while measure. Any time an athlete's career is extended it's a better re-turn on investment from a funding perspective.

Australian Sports Commission ex-ecutive Andrew Collins predicts that other sports who rely on ma-ture athletes will follow suit in fu-ture years.

"The feeling in rowing was that they weren't getting full value from their athletes, so this is a really strategic approach to retaining athletes in the system," Collins said. "It may become a more mainstream approach in years to come. I'd be surprised if more sports didn't look at this, particu-larly those in which longevity is an important component of success."

Beijing gold medallists Drew Ginn and Duncan Free are parents


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Auctioneers Jack Fischer and Mike Scott

Steak Night—Fund Raiser

School girl rowing has come to a close for another season with the running of the Girls Head of the River (HOR) on August 20th. Swans is the home to Perth Mod-ern and Rossmoyne rowers.

The Swan’s Perth Modern School (PMS) girls did well on the day with the Senior A Quad taking out an impressive first place. Natasha Gay rowing for PLC took out first place in the Senior A Single Scull and Ash O'Reilly took out third in the event for Rossmooyne.

The club held a special fund raising Steak Night on Tuesday 5th July to help raise monies for junior devel-opment and our young rowers go-ing to the Word Championships and the Youth Cup. There was great turn out on the night with over 100 people and the atmos-phere was electric. In addition to the great steak dinner the group enjoyed a video following these rowers training for their big events and a video to launch the new Swan’s web site.

Natasha Gay and Ross Brown each spoke to the crowd to give us a won-derful insight into the strength, deter-mination and dedication it takes these athletes to compete at the world level.

The highlight of the evening was an auction that brought in just shy of $3,000. This was topped off by an incredibly generous donation from Accenture of $7,500 for our young athletes.

Swan’s School Girl Rowing BBQ’ing Steaks - Mike Hinsley & Alex Lyche

Perth Modern 2011 Girl’s Squad with their Coach Steve Mann

Kate Kimberley - Freshman’s Single Scull

PMS A Quad 1st Place HOR - Zoë Thorn-ton, Lilly Tinapple, Lauren Schillaci, Ash-leigh Blechynden, and Katie Fowler (c)

PMS B Quad - Ruby Gulland, Vivienne Horley, Amy Lowe, Anyi Mai, Kate Kimber-

ley (c)

PMS 1st VIII - Zoë Thornton, Lilly Tinapple, Ash-leigh Blechynden, Lauren Schillaci, Gemma Kim-

berley, Ruby Gulland, Vivienne Horley, Anyi Mai and Katie Fowler (c)


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Swan River Rowing Club Committee

Club President Ian Boserio

0419-932-175 [email protected]

Vice Presidents (3) John Boardman

[email protected]

Michael Hinsley 0413-405-904

[email protected]

Brian Nash [email protected]

Treasurer Ian Clairs

0407-008-324 [email protected]

Secretary Hilary Smale

[email protected]

Captain of Boats Peter Doyle

[email protected]

Vice Captains (3) Cameron Brewer (Men’s) [email protected]

Ash Rowe (Women’s) [email protected]

Roger Gaskin (Boats) [email protected]

Committee Members (5) Serge Gay

[email protected]

Nancy Lyche Newsletters

[email protected]

Alex Thornton Registrar

[email protected]

Alan Stewart [email protected]

Phil Young [email protected]

Good luck to those Swannies going to World Masters Championships in Poznan, Poland 8-11 September. Those from our club competing in-clude Lorraine Ironside, Alan Nicoll Mike Scott, George Xouris, Nicky Cato, Marian Robbins. They are coached by our masters coach extraordinaire Vanessa Grant.

Participants in the Championships compete for themselves - there are no country delegations. Beyond the age requirement and membership in the sport's governing body, there are no competition qualification requirements.

Picture a regatta with a boat park full of 1600 boats, 470 races and over 10,000 seat entries and you have a picture of the World Rowing Masters Regatta. The regatta will attract 3,500 rowers from around the world.

The oldest participant at the last Championship was Dr Charles Eug-ster of Switzerland who at 91 years rowed in three races. On the women’s side, the oldest partici-pant was Nelly Brandsma, 84, from

our very own Swan River Rowing Club who raced in two races.

The large number of races means that each race starts at just three-minute intervals on the 1,000m re-gatta course. On top of this, at any one time, there can be up to four races on the course.

As the race format includes only heats, medals are presented to the winner of each heat. In this atmos-phere of rowing enormity, a medal giving ceremony is held every three minutes in front of a ready and ap-preciative crowd in the grandstand area.

World Rowing Masters Regatta

The order of the owners of the ugg boots from Page 1 from left to right are: Lauren Schillaci, Kate Kimber-ley, Ashleigh Blechynden, Gemma Kimberley, and Anyi Mai. Not to confuse you, but the order of the girls in the photo on the right are Anyi Mai, Lauren Schillaci, Gemma Kimberley, Ashleigh Blechynden, and Kate Kimberley.

Who’s Boots Where Who’s?

Our Masters Rowers, Marion Robbins, Nicky Cato and Lorraine Ironside

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