Women’s Eight Set for Rio Repechage

Published On: 8 August 2016

Rowing: Women’s Eight – Heat

Athlete: Alex Hagan

Venue: Lagoa Stadium

Western Australian rower Alex Hagan and the Australian women’s eight have finished fourth in their heat on Day 3 of the Rio Olympic Games and will now face a repechage to qualify for the final.

One of the Australian Olympic Team’s good news stories of the 2016 edition, the women’s eight had thought their Olympic dream was over when they missed entry for Brazil at the qualification regatta in Switzerland last May.

Just a fortnight shy of the opening ceremony however, they received an 11th hour reprieve after the crew from Russia were disqualified following the release of the McLaren report into Russian doping. With Australia being the first reserve country, an invitation was accepted to fill the void.

The women’s eight started their campaign today on a far calmer course than had been served up on the opening day of competition at the Lagoa venue.

The crew clocked a time 6:22.68mins over the 2km course to finish behind USA (6:06.34) – who gained the single berth through to the final, whilst Australia will now be joined by the Netherlands (6:14.36) and Romania (6:16.24) in the repechage round.

Australian women’s eight crew:

  • Alex Hagan
  • Fiona Albert
  • Jessica Morrison
  • Meaghan Volker
  • Molly Goodman
  • Olympia Aldersey
  • Lucy Stephan
  • Charlotte Sutherland
  • Cox: Sarah Banting