Australia leads Sydney medals table

This medal haul earned Australia 81 points overall and established them as the World Rowing Cup points leaders after the first leg of a three-leg World Rowing Cup series. Great Britain finished second overall with 68 points and New Zealand finished third with 55 points.
Australia, Great Britain and New Zealand scored four gold medals each with the remaining two golds going to France for the men’s pair (Germain Chardin and Dorian Mortelette) and to Bulgaria for the men’s single sculls (Georgi Bozhilov).

Australia’s medals included golds in the men’s four, women’s single sculls, women’s quadruple sculls and women’s eight. The win in the eight was exceptional in that it ended a six-year unbeaten run by the United States that included back to back Olympic golds. In addition to the women’s eight the most popular race for the predominantly Australian crowd was Kim Crow’s win in the women’s single. Crow, the darling of Australian rowing after her two-medal London Olympic success, easily won the single over China’s two-time Olympian Bin Tang and Eleanor Logan of the United States.

In the men’s four A-final two Australian boats led the way with the crew that included three of the 2012 Olympic silver medal boat finishing first. New Zealand came in third.

Gold medals for Great Britain were earned in the women’s pair, lightweight men’s double sculls, men’s quadruple sculls and the men’s eight. The men’s eight was perhaps the most anticipated medal with three of the 2012 Olympic Champion men’s four sitting in the boat – Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Alex Gregory. The boat also contained two of the athletes that won the Olympic bronze medal in the men’s eight. The United States gave Great Britain a good run for their money, pushing this race to the fastest of the day in relation to the World Best Time. Australia finished third.

The British women’s pair saw the return to the boat of Olympic Champion Helen Glover. In the absence of her London Olympic partner, Glover teamed up with relative newcomer to international rowing Polly Swann to overwhelm the rest of the field. Glover and Swann finished more than four seconds ahead of the United States in second.

New Zealand boated new combinations compared to their 2012 line ups and earned gold medals in the women’s double sculls, lightweight women’s double sculls, lightweight men’s four and men’s double sculls. These crews were selected through trials two weeks ago and the men’s double of Robert Manson and Michael Arms especially impressed with their win against Estonia’s Allar Raja and Kasper Taimsoo.

For comprehensive results, please consult our results database here.

To view photos of the regatta, we invite you to browse our online photo gallery.  

Detailed race reports have also been published in the news section of the World Rowing website.

The second Samsung World Rowing Cup will take place from 21 to 23 June 2013 at Eton, Dorney, Great Britain. The third and final World Rowing Cup will be in Lucerne, Switzerland from 12 to 14 July 2013.

Next up on the 2013 World Rowing calendar is the European Rowing Junior Championships (25 – 26 May in Minsk, Belarus) followed by the European Rowing Championships (31 May – 2 June in Seville, Spain).