The 2023 World Rowing Championships brought with it not just the chance to win a World title but another key focus for most attending- the first opportunity to qualify their boat for the Paralympic and Olympic Games.

For our PR3 mixed coxed four this meant needing to make the A Final in order to secure a qualifying spot for Australia. With 2 debutants in the crew it was also a fantastic opportunity to experience the environment and pressures that come with a major championship.

They say with every race comes many lessons and our heat certainly provided this opportunity, we didn’t race the way we knew we were capable of and with only the top 2 finishers moving directly to the A Final, our third place finish meant we would now race the repercharge the very next day.

The repercharge was our last opportunity to make the A Final and so the pressure was now on to deliver and boy did our crew do just that. We flew out of the start gate, executed our race plan and won the repercharge and in the process became the first Australian PR3 crew to break the 7 minute mark in an international competition. A big milestone! We were now headed for the A Final which also confirmed qualifying the boat for the 2024 Paralympic Games! It was a performance to be proud of!

With a few days to prepare for the A Final it was straight into recovery and training to prepare. We knew the A Final would be tough. The worlds 6 best PR3 4+ crews pushing each toher to the limit. It was a fantastic race and incredible to see the cloeset margins there have been in years. We fought hard and finished a galiant fourth place, just off the podium.

After a big few months of rowing and cycling it’s time for me to take a step back and enjor some down time… a well deserved holiday. 2024 is going to be a MASSIVE year!