Cureton and Skipworth Qualify for Olympic Final

The Australian men’s lightweight four crew featuring WAIS athletes Ben Cureton and Todd Skipworth has qualified through to the final of the Olympic Games where they will contest for medals.

The lightweight men’s four faced a semi-final of death in the last race of the Day 4 program, with four of the finalists from the 2011 world championships as well as the in-form South African crew chasing a top three finish to progress to the final.

Denmark has a rich history in the Olympics in the lightweight men’s four and their crew showed their pedigree from lane 6 in the semi-final by jumping to a boat length lead early on.

The Australian four started slightly slower, but a superb push through the middle 1000m saw them move to second position.

The race to the line saw South Africa sneak into second behind Denmark, with the Australian world champions securing a place in the A final with third place.

Our 39-year-old veteran Anthony Edwards, who will row his last race in the final on Day 6, said the crew had room for improvement.

“We pride ourselves on our rhythm and that is what we back ourselves with to win our races,” Edwards said. “We didn’t hit that today in the first 500m, but had a good middle 1000 and showed our strength there.

“We will be confident in the final and we will be sneaking along in the outside lane. Today was as good as an Olympic final and we didn’t quite bring our A game but we made it through.”