Piecing together Australia’s Olympic rowing team

 The final round began 11 April finishing nine days later with more rowers being added to the roster.

Selection of the Olympic team began in November last year when two crews were announced. The men’s pair of Drew Ginn and Duncan Free and the lightweight women’s double of Marguerite Houston and Amber Halliday gained pre-selection. This allowed them to focus solely on their Olympic bid and miss the entire trials process.

The first round of selection trials began in December last year. Invitations were given to just under 100 rowers. Special interest surrounded 42-year-old Australian rowing icon and Olympic Champion James Tomkins as he attempted qualification for his sixth Olympic Games. Tomkins’ target was the men’s eight which had yet to qualify for the Olympics after finishing one position outside of qualification at the Munich World Rowing Championships. Disqualification of the Russian men’s eight following doping violations promoted the Australian eight into Beijing qualification position.

Tomkins along with his recent pairs partner Sam Conrad and David Dennis, Sam Loch, James Chapman, Tom Laurich, Jeremy Stevensen and the return of 2004 Olympian Stephen Stewart were selected for the eight. Marty Rabjohns will be the coxswain.

The women’s eight squad, named in February, includes Pauline Frasca, Sarah Heard, Kate Hornsey, Sally Kehoe, Liz Kell, Brooke Pratley, Phoebe Stanley, Sarah Tait with Elizabeth Patrick as coxswain. Robyn Selby Smith and Natalie Bale were added to the squad in April. Australia has never won an Olympic medal in this event.

The women’s pair is Sarah Cook and Kim Crow. Cook and Crow qualified the boat last year when they finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships. Similarly the lightweight men’s double has remained the same. Sam Beltz and Tom Gibson finished fourth as well last year.

Already qualified boats, the lightweight men’s four and men’s double retain their line up. The lightweight four will be Anthony Edwards, Ben Cureton, Rod Chisholm and Todd Skipworth with the double made up of David Crawshay and Scott Brennan.

Much media interest surrounded trials for the women’s sculling squad with the controversial Sally Robbins aiming to qualify for the Australian Olympic team. Robbins hoped to turn around the results from the 2004 Olympic Games when she raced in the women’s eight but stopped rowing 300 metres before the finish.

Spots in the women’s quad and double were at stake and further rounds of trials, finally concluding after nine days on the Sydney 2000 Olympic course in Penrith, narrowed down to Amber Bradley, Kerry Hore, Zoe Uphill and Amy Ives for the already qualified women's quad. Catriona Sens and Sonia Mills were named for the women’s double. This boat is yet to qualify, so they will have to race at the final qualification regatta in Poznan, Poland, in June.

Australia’s fastest women’s single sculler Pippa Savage has been selected to go to the Poznan qualification regatta to try and qualify in the women’s single. Likewise the men’s four of Francis Hegerty, Cameron McKenzie-McHarg, James Marburg and Matt Ryan will race at Poznan.

There is still some finalising to do in the men’s quad and single. Five men have been named: Dan Noonan, James McRae, Chris Morgan, Peter Hardcastle and Brendan Long. The final crew make-up will be made in the next couple of weeks.

Australia has qualified 11 boats out of a possible 14 for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The team leaves for Europe in the next couple of weeks to take part in the first Rowing World Cup to be held in Munich, Germany, 8 – 11 May.