Rowing: Punch and Karrach shine to confirm Australian excellence

Australia crews came out on top of the Commonwealth championships at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham, yesterday, when they won seven golds to Canada's six and England's five. Ten countries shared the medals in 23 boat classes.

The Australian team are preparing for the World Championships next month, whereas England fielded largely club units and development crews, and countries like Scotland and Wales the strongest they could find from relatively small pools of talent. The men's lightweight sculls neatly illustrated the point – the winner Hamish Karrasch of Australia is a world medallist, while the Guernsey sculler Melvyn Harbour was in his first 2,000 metre race.

The Australians won the men's heavy and light double sculls, coxless fours, quadruple sculls and lightweight eight. The Under-23 silver medallist, Mitchell Punch, won the single sculls. All but one of their entries won a medal, and Canada's team, put together for this event, also won medals in all events in which they took part.

Jill Lancaster and Georgina Simpson won two medals for Zimbabwe, gold in the lightweight pairs and silver in the lightweight double sculls.

The major incident of the regatta was a re-row for the bronze medal between the coxless fours of England, alias Oxford Brookes, and Scotland, alias Aberdeen, after New Zealand were disqualified for steering into the English boat. Australia and Canada were clear in gold and silver positions when the clash took place. England won the re-row.

Brookes are making a habit of doing their finals twice, for it was they who turned the tables on Cambridge at Henley after geese interfered with the final.

COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIPS (Nottingham): Finals (winners only): MEN: Single sculls: Australia (M Punch) 7min 42.63sec. Pairs: Canada (D Kay, G Hodgson) 7:04.03. Lightweight pairs: Canada (L Parsons, E Oinonen) 7:45.19. Double sculls: Australia (C Jones, P Hardcastle) 7:02.56. Lightweight double sculls: Australia (D Stewart, H Karrasch) 6:58.32. Fours: Australia (R Douglas, T Johnston, C McKenzie-McHarg, D Dennis) 6:33.26. WOMEN: Single sculls: Canada (J Rumball) 8min 35.75sec. Pairs: Scotland (A Barnes, P Dixon) 8:43.75. Double sculls: Canada (L Middleton, S Norwood) 8:04.42. Lightweight double sculls: England (F Gibson, S Watts) 8:10.69.