Lake Nagambie turned into the focal point of Australian rowing last week, as thousands of competitors and supporters from across the country descended on the Goulburn Valley town for the Australian Rowing Championships.
Nagambie was selected as a last-minute host for the event after Rowing Australia was forced to shift the competition from the Sydney International Regatta Centre due to water contamination issues.
While this sudden change didn’t give the town much time to prepare for the large-scale event, the Nagambie community banded together brilliantly to deliver a successful week of competition on the lake.
“It (the event) went fantastically, in that the entire rowing community stepped up and realised that with such short notice everyone had to do their little bit and that’s why it worked,” Nagambie Rowing Club captain Sue Andrews said.
“Volunteers-wise we were a little bit short down the regatta centre end with jobs like car parking and things, but as far as the regatta operations side of it, we had heaps of help from around Victoria and interstate, which was great.
“The club has received heaps of great feedback on how the event was run and I just want to say a massive thank you for everyone that made it happen.”
On the water, rowers from across the country battled heavy wind conditions throughout the week and delivered fans exciting competition from start to finish.
The feature races of the week were the king’s and queen’s cups on Sunday afternoon, which saw men’s and women’s interstate eights battle it out for the most revered piece of silverware in Australian rowing.
The Queen’s Cup saw Victoria retain its title with a tight 0.16-second win over NSW, while in the King’s Cup NSW reigned supreme, bringing the silverware back to Sydney with a one-length triumph over the Victorian crew.
With the Australian Open Rowing Championships and Australian Open Schools Rowing Championships also gracing Lake Nagambie throughout the week, there were many highlights.
“The Interstate Regatta on Sunday afternoon was great. The women’s eight that won the Queen’s Cup had some connection to Nagambie, so that was a real highlight,” Andrews said.
“But overall, for me being in boat holding all week, it was fantastic to see school kids who were volunteering get to interact with those Olympic and national level rowers. The vibe was just great.”
The benefits of the championships spread far from the water, with businesses around Nagambie receiving a critical post COVID-19 boost as a result of the large number of visitors.
“You often hear people say ‘what benefit do events like this give the town?’ But this week you could not get a park in town, coffee shops were full, pubs were full, so I don’t think anyone in Nagambie can say they didn’t benefit from the championships,” Andrews said.
“The City of Greater Shepparton was also very helpful in providing accommodation for the people coming down, so the whole region really got a boost, which was great.”
And as for the talk of Lake Nagambie potentially being a host for Commonwealth Games rowing in 2026, Andrews said if last week was anything to go by, the club and town was ready for the responsibility.
“We absolutely can do it,” she said.
“Fingers crossed that, firstly, rowing is selected as one of the sports and, secondly, the government brings the competition here to Nagambie, because I know it would be great here on the lake.”
Final day report – 2022 Australian Rowing Titles – Nagambie Lakes from David Schier
The Australian rowing titles and interstate regatta concluded on the Nagambie Lakes course on Sunday.
The event ran for seven days with 157 schools and clubs from throughout Australia competing in 624 races. The conditions which were affected by a southerly wind through the week were warm, calm and pleasant for the championship rowing on Sunday.
During the week, 75 schools and clubs were at one time or another on the podium receiving medals. The Sydney Rowing Club was the most successful with 16 gold medals, followed by Sydney University with 12 and Melbourne’s Mercantile and Melbourne University each with six.
The crowd of 3000 burst into cheers as Melbourne Grammar beat Scotch College by a length in the Barrington Cup for schoolboy eights and reversed the result of the Victoria Head of the River just a week earlier. Shore School from Sydney took bronze ahead of defending champion St Peter’s College of Adelaide in fourth place.
Prominent Channel Seven football commentator Luke Darcy was seen sprinting along the course to the judges’ box as the schoolgirls eights rowed to the finish line. His daughter Sienna was in the St Catherine’s crew. The sprint was not in vain — St Catherine’s was in second place for almost the entire 2000m, but produced a withering last 300m to snatch a thrilling win by 0.57 seconds over the crestfallen Melbourne Girls Grammar.
NSW dominated the interstate regatta, including winning the prestigious King’s Cup in the 102nd staging of the event. The NSW eight-oared crew blew away defending champion Victoria with a powerful start and was a surprising five metres in front at the 500m mark. Victoria pegged it back but three seconds separated the crews at the finish. Governor-General David Hurley presented NSW stroke and Olympic gold medallist Alex Purnell with the time-honoured cup.
Victoria bounced back in the Queen’s Cup for women’s eights, easily beating NSW and Queensland. Tasmania registered the most impressive win of the interstate races in a dominant display in the lightweight women quad sculls stroked by the indefatigable Georgina Nesbitt.
NSW sculler Harriet Hudson won the Nell Slatter trophy for the women’s single scull. She came from behind to defeat Queensland’s Lily Dalton, who took silver ahead of Mila Marston of Victoria. World Rowing executive director Vincent Gaillard of Switzerland was on hand to present the trophy and gold medal to Hudson.
Loud applause greeted blind Queensland sculler Rebecca Markwell in the women’s para single scull over 2000m. She missed a place but won over the crowd at the event won by Victorian Jessica Gallagher.
In the two youth eight events, both with seven crews, strong wins were recorded by NSW in the men’s and women’s event, with Victoria back in the bronze medal position in both races.
Despite being given only two weeks’ notice that the event was to be moved to Nagambie from Sydney, the Strathbogie Shire Council and countless volunteers from Nagambie and surrounds and Victorian clubs including Shepparton and as far afield as Bairnsdale rallied to successfully help run the event.