The final day of National Junior selections were held on Monday with seven Queenslanders being selected onto the Australian Team.
Chad King, Rowing Queensland’s High Performance Manger stated that ‘this is another great effort from our junior rowers this season. They have been very consistent over the last few years and it shows that the supporting programmes that Rowing Queensland offer, such as Rising Talent, JETS and the Passport programme are working effectively in identifying future talent’.
Cam Smith (Comm), Tom Amies (UQBC) were selected into the men’s team in the quad scull and coxed four boats respectively, and Eleanor Wilson (Bris GPS), Chloe Hill (Bris GPS) and Regan Spark (Bris GPS) were all picked to represent Australia in the women’s quad scull. Brisbane and GPS coach Cameron Kennedy has also been selected to lead the women’s quad scull.
After the announcement Tom Amies was excited about being selected for his second consecutive year. I’m pumped about this crew, especially as I think it is much stronger than last year’s crew. I was lucky enough to top the bike and dyno talent ID scores for the juniors and I think that this is due to all the hard work I have put in with the Passport programme.’ Interestingly Tom was not only the highest ranked athlete in junior talent ID scores but also beat all the U23 scores which may force Rowing Australia staff to re-evaluate these standards.
In addition, Andrew Service has also been selected as the National Junior Team Manager. ‘I am honoured to be a part of the Australian Team this year which looks to be a very promising group of athletes and coaches.’ Andrew has been involved with the Queensland state teams as manager for 18 months now and as reward Andrew is now being recognised by the National body.
Of particular note is that three members of the women’s junior quad and the coach all hail from the Brisbane and GPS club. Eleanor Wilson, first time member of the Australian team was thrilled with being named on the team. ‘I feel I have learnt heaps at the selection trials and finally the hard work has paid off. There is such a fantastic atmosphere at the GPS club and I want to thank Cam for helping me get to this point.’
The Australian Junior team will have a series of three residential camps based at the AIS in preparation for the 2010 World Junior Championships being held in Racice in the Czech Republic from the 4-8th August.
