Cureton Fourth in Men’s Lightweight Four Final in World Cup

WAIS rower Ben Cureton has featured in the final of the men’s lightweight four at World Cup 3 in Lucerne, Switzerland on the weekend.

Dual Olympian Cureton was joined in the Australian boat by the Tasmanian triad of Sam Beltz, Tom Gibson and Anthony Edwards.

The crew narrowly missed bronze in a blanket finish, settling for fourth place in a high quality race against a field that will likely provide their main rivals at the up-coming World Championships in Bled, Slovenia.

The Australian boat also competed minus usual stroke and WAIS scholarship holder Todd Skipworth, who was absent due to a minor wrist injury.

Great Britain took the gold medal, while only 0.4 of a second separated Italy, Denmark and Australia, who recorded a time of 6:05.28.

Following a silver medal to the women’s double scull earlier in the day, Daniel Noonan (NSW), Karsten Forsterling (VIC), James McRae (SA) and Chris Morgan (SA) produced a barnstorming finish to claim the bronze medal.

Australia was in sixth place at the halfway mark but upped their rate and surged through the field to pass Switzerland, New Zealand and current world champions Croatia.

Germany claimed the gold medal, while Australia only fell half a second short of stealing the silver medal off Great Britain, crossing third in a time of 5:51.71.

Rowing Australia National High Performance Director Andrew Matheson said the crew showed good pace for early in their international season.

“The guys are really happy with their effort and their speed down the last half of the race is promising ahead of the world championships,” Matheson said. “They passed some pretty talented crews with ease down the stretch.

“All our crews have a solid six-week block of training now and we are very much looking forward to racing at the world championships at the end of August.”

The women’s quad scull of Amy Clay (NSW), Brooke Pratley (NSW), Sarah Cook (ACT) and Sally Kehoe (QLD) claimed fifth place in the final.

The Australian team will now travel to the Australian Institute of Sport’s European Training Centre in Varese, Italy to complete a six week training block ahead of the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia (August 28 – September 4).

The world championships serve as the major qualification regatta for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

-With Rowing Australia