The Australian’s women’s eight, featuring local rower Paige Barr, finished sixth in the 2025 World Rowing Championships in Shanghai last Saturday.
The Australian crew was coxswained Hayley Verbunt and contained Barr, Jaime Ford, Laura Gourley, Zara Collisson, Ella Bramwell, Sophie Houston, Katherine Easton and Georgie Gleeson.
The Netherlands (6:08.10) won gold from Romania (6:10.83) and Great Britain (6:12.66), followed by Germany (6:12.83), USA (6:16.09) and Australia (6:19.01).
Coach Xavier Dorfman was circumspect about his crew’s performance afterwards.
“It was frustrating because we are sure we can do better than this. The positive is that I still believe we have the potential to be one of the best in the world,” Dorfman said.
Despite missing out on medals, getting a young and inexperienced eights into the finals was a positive outcome with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles in mind.
