A Place to Call Home - The Women's NTC

After a successful first season of the new Olympiad, Australia’s top female rowers now have a place to call home with Rowing Australia Patron, Mrs Gina Reinhart and NSW Minister for Sport, Stuart Ayres officially opening the Hancock Prospecting Women’s Training Centre on Saturday the 28th of October.

The new purpose built facility is supported by a combined investment from Rowing Australia, the NSW Institute of Sport, the NSW Office of Sport, the Australian Institute of Sport and Rowing NSW.

The new National Training Centre is situated on the banks of the Nepean River, and will provide some of the best water in the country for Australia’s top female athletes.

“It is amazing to have our new home, we feel very spoilt after a season of being spread around. It really is fantastic to have all of our training facilities brought under one roof. We all feel so lucky to have this amazing centre built for us.” – Leah Saunders

Before the centre opened the athletes were all based in Penrith, training out of Nepean Rowing Club, the Don Croot boatshed owned by Rowing New South Wales and utilising the facilities of a local Penrith gym. However, with the new building finally being opened, their training will be centralised to the one facility.

 “The first year was fantastic, the girls really came together well and we had some great moments and some not so great moments which taught us a lot about ourselves. The highs far outweigh the lows and we are all looking forward to welcoming some new faces into the centre this season.” Rowena Meredith.

The current 2017-18 season is now beginning as the athletes now preparing for national selection trials in the New Year. The athletes will be aiming to be selected for the next target event of the Tokyo Olympiad, the 2018 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Six new athletes have been invited to the centre for the coming season. The new names are:

A full list of the athletes at the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre can be found here.

Here at Rowing New South Wales we would like to wish the girls all the best for their quest for gold over the years to come.

All Images Courtesy of Rowing Australia.