The Australian Women’s Four have claimed their World Championship crown, after taking the win in Sarasota, Florida over the weekend.
The crew, including VIS scholarship holders Lucy Stephan and Katrina Werry alongside Molly Goodman and Sarah Hawe, haven’t lost a race all season and were not about to let their reign fall in Sarasota.
Despite crossing the 500m mark in fifth, the Australian’s took their chances and made their move in the second half of the race. Challenging the Dutch race leaders, the Australians pushed for a medal position, alongside Russia and Poland, before hitting the front in the final sprint to take the title.
VIS scholarship holder, Katrina Werry attributed the win to the crew’s focus on the task at hand throughout the race.
“It was such an amazing race, we stuck to our roles and just stayed internal to the boat, we weren’t panicked at all. We knew we had to do what we do best and while our legs were tired we knew we had enough and trusted the training, and everything we have done in the last six months, to come through for each other and we did just that,” Werry said.
VIS scholarship holder, Angus Widdicombe, also managed to claim a medal, a silver one this time in the Men’s Coxed Pair.
Joined by Darcy Wruck and coxswain James Rook, the VIS scholarship holder scored his first senior World Championship medal, the first medal of the competition for Australia.
VIS scholarship holder, Alice Arch added another silver medal to the Australian’s collection, when she finished second in the Lightweight Women’s Quadruple Scull with teammates Amy James, Georgia Miansarow and Georgia Nesbitt. The defending U23 World Champions, Italy, managed to just steal the gold in a tight race.
Post-race, Arch said she was thrilled to have won silver.
“I’m stoked. We are obviously disappointed that we didn’t get gold as that was our goal, but we’re really happy as a crew to have won silver today,” Arch said.
Photo: Rowing Australia
