At 3 Lonsdale St we gathered as Brodie Buckland and four other brave souls got ready to affirm their allegiance to the Great Southern Land.

The immigration department staff ushered the small crowd of five soon to be citizens and their friends upstairs to a small hall on the first floor. After a short ceremony the New Australians were presented with their certificate s of citizenship. We all stood and sang the national anthem and signed the visitor book – got some photos of Brodie with a photos of the Queen.

Then it was a short farewell on the pavement as Brodie and a few of the AIS rowers in attendance had to head back to the “tute” for a pm training session.

Brodie will be trying to win a spot in the Australian eight to compete in the 2012 Olympics – nationals are 5-11th March in Perth and final Olympic trials start in Sydney on 23rd March.

Ed will be assisted by Sasha Belonogoff in the role of Deputy Captain. Sasha is a medallist at both U23 and Junior level and the NSW representative in the President’s Cup in 2011 where he won the bronze medal.

Vice Captains for 2012 are Richard Allsop and Ryan Edwards.

In the Women’s Eights our crew lost Greta Beale to illness and faced a very competent Sydney Rowing Club crew but broke away at the turn to win by 1.83 seconds in a time of 4 mins 36 secs. University of New South Wales finished third with Pymble Ladies College fourth and Loreto Kirribilli fifth.

In the men’s event the two heats were won by Sydney Rowing Club and SUBC respectively with Sydney Rowing Club posting the fastest heat tome of 4 mins 6 secs. Tony Lister was steering the SUBC eight and hunting for his seventh gold oar. The final saw SUBC in lane 1 on the Hunter’s Hill side, Sydney in lane two with Kings School and Mosman outside them. SUBC started well and by the 700 metre mark had pulled back the deficit from the staggered start. With Lister hugging the south side buoys and shaving the turning pile the SUBC crew covered the shortest distance to turn ahead of Sydney and go to the line a length clear. With the following sea breeze the time was a very slick in just a few hundredths of a second under 4 minutes.

Sydney Uni’s other entry was in the Men’s B Fours where our crew of Jon Goddard, Tom Bowditch, Kit Cunningham Reid and Jon Rundle coxed by Will Raven raced two Sydney Rowing Club fours and a Macquarie Uni Four. Another win to SUBC crew – this time from the outside lane (4) winning by 5 seconds.

Richard brings with him twenty years’ experience in coaching at club and twelve years at national level in Holland. He holds the highest available rowing coaching qualifications available in Holland and has gained an MSc in Petroleum Engineering from the Delft University of Technology.

Richard will work with the Sydney University Elite development squad which is currently rowing from the UNSW boatsheds at Tarban Creek. Rick will work with our existing coaching team of Mark Prater, Gonzalo Briones, Mike Doyle and Debbie Fox to improve the development and performance of Sydney Uni rowers.

We are currently going through the relevant visa application processes. We expect Richard will be able to start coaching prior by the start of our January Rowing Camp.