Two Oarsome Australians: FISA Interviews Kim Crow and Drew Ginn



The Australian national rowing team is perhaps stronger than ever, with competitive crews across the board, boasting some of the most impressive individual talent anywhere in the world. Kim Crow is among those, having medaled at the world level as both a sweep rower and sculler, and having shown this summer that she is a force to be reckoned with not only double (following a silver medal in Bled last year, and another at the Munich World Rowing Cup stop last month along with partner Brooke Pratley), but also the single–incredibly, just days after winning the women's single at the Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Crow went on to take a silver medal at the Lucerne World Cup behind only perennial contender Xiuyun Zhang of China, and ahead of 2011 world champion Mirka Knapkova of the Czech Republic.



Drew Ginn and his new-look 'Oarsome Foursome' are looking like they could provide some serious fireworks in London this summer, having gotten the racing season started with a bang at the Lucerne World Cup, where the Aussies pressed the flagship GB four all the way to the line. The combination of Drew Ginn, Josh Dunkley-Smith, James Chapman and Will Lockwood backed up this performance by beating the GB crew in their final two head-to-head races before the Olympics, winning both the semifinal and the final of the Munich World Cup. With both the AUS and GB national teams looking so strong entering the Olympics, former Australian great James Tomkins has described the upcoming Games as an 'Ashes' battle. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, 'The Ashes' was first a Test cricket series played between Australia and England–more from Wikipedia–and has since been applied to AUS-GB rivalry more generally.)

The Olympic Games are now just over 21 days away, with the rowing events set to begin on July 28th, the day after the Opening Ceremonies.

-RR

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