A dominant all- around display by Sydney Uni rowers saw them take out both the Men’s and Women’s Overall Championships at the 2014 Intervarsity Rowing. The regatta held over 3 days in spring condition at the International Regatta Centre saw some important wins but our team and consistently good performances in all events entered.
The men’s eight backed up their 2013 win in the Oxford and Cambridge Cup with a strong performance to hold out an excellent Monash eight with Adelaide third. With six new faces from the crew that won in 2013 of which four are in first year this was a result the club, the crew and coaches can be very pleased with. Many of the crew were in the successful eight that took out the championship event at Canadian Henley in July.
Sydney worked their way into the lead well before the halfway mark and took their lead to 3.6 seconds on the line. SUBC has now moved to 38 wins just 4 wins behind our arch rivals Melbourne.
The Sydney men, led by 2014 World Championship bronze medallist, Sasha Belonogoff also won the coxed fours, the mixed eights and the lightweight single scull ( Jack Hanley) and came second in the mixed fours. Our women’s team won the women’s quad and placed second in the eight.
The men were awarded the Bill Webb Trophy (men’s Champions) and our women the Amanda Young Rose Bowl as women’s champions. The Bill Webb trophy was donated in 2006 by the rowing alumni if SUBC and St Andrew’s College in memory of Bill Webb. Bill won the intervarsity eights in 1961-62 and served as doctor for the Australian Rowing Team for nearly 25 years. The Amanda Young Rose Bowl commemorates Intervarsity rower Amanda Young. Amanda from University of Western Australia contracted meningococcal meningitis at the intervarsity held in Penrith in 1997. A week later Amanda passed away at the tragically young age of 18. Murray Clarke arranged for this trophy in her memory and the cup was donated by the University of WA.
With both teams winning Sydney University took out the Overall AUG Rowing Championships and the Centenary Cup for 2014.
Congratulations to our coaches, Rick van Hooydonk, Debbie Fox, Mark Prater, Ester Verberg and thanks to Australian University Sport and the host and regatta operators, Rowing New South Wales for a well-run and well attended event.
The Intervarsity rowing championships for 2015 will be held at Westlakes in Adelaide
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