The athletes, including Lucy Stephan, who is the partner of former Australian rowing team member Michael McNamara and is well known to the Nagambie community, will compete in the World Rowing Cup 1 Simulation Regatta Camp, which was originally planned to be held in Sydney.
“Due to high levels of weed and blue-green algae at the Olympic venue, Rowing Australia was forced to source an alternative venue for the camp in order for the athletes to race a simulation regatta and Nagambie was offered as an option,” Rowing Australia communications and government relations manager Lucy Benjamin said.
The team will arrive on Wednesday and stay until Sunday afternoon, with all members in contention for an Olympic berth.
“Australia has eight crews qualified for Tokyo, while we’re looking to qualify a further four in May at the final Olympic qualification regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland,” Benjamin said.
“The boats which we have qualified are the men’s and women’s eights, the men’s and women’s fours, the men’s and women’s pairs, the women’s double scull and the men’s quadruple scull.
“We are aiming to qualify the men’s double scull, the women’s quadruple scull and the lightweight men’s and women’s double sculls.”
Other well-known athletes attending will be Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallists Alexander Hill, Joshua Booth and Cameron Girdlestone and fellow Olympians David Watts, Spencer Turrin, Nick Purnell, Jessica Morrison, Olympia Aldersey and Molly Goodman.
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