Have a go at BMX riding
Penrith Panthers BMX Club is holding a Free Come and Try Day on Sunday, 9am-11am, Panthers St Marys BMX track, Creek Road St Mary's, behind Blair Oval, near Ripples swimming pool. Call 0434 267 785 or 0407 497 606 for further details.
Participants will receive a show bag.
Pre-registration required: panthers.bmxnsw.com.au or email penrithbmxclub@gmail.com.
Regatta Centre gets set
Thousands of rowers from around Australia converged on the Regatta Centre over the weekend for the NSW Rowing Championships, the first of many exciting rowing events to hit Penrith in the coming weeks.
NSW Rowing chief executive Christian Renford said volunteers worked hard during the championships preparing for the Sydney International Rowing Regatta in March, when the World Rowing Cup will come to Australia for the first time.
"It's a very big deal for the world cup to be coming to Australia," Renford said.
"It's the first time international rowing will come back to Sydney since the 2000 Olympics."
The event is expected to bring thousands of visitors to the district.
Renford says he is confident about Penrith hosting the world cup, as it is home to one of the best rowing courses in the world.
"Penrith and the Regatta centre will be absolutely fantastic hosts for the world cup," he said.
"We've got a lot of experience with our NSW volunteers and our rowing Australia volunteers and we will definitely be showing rowing in the best light."
Top rowers in action
The strong performance of Australia's top rowers in the NSW Rowing Championships served as a key step towards the selection of the national team to represent Australia at the upcoming first round of the World Rowing Cup (March 22-24) as part of the inaugural Sydney International Rowing Regatta (March 18-24).
Most of the state championship title in the elite races went either to London 2012 Olympians, last year's successful under-23 national team rowers or a combination of the two, showcasing a promising mix of old and new talent in strong combinations just ahead of World Rowing Cup selection trials.
An example of such a successful combination were 2012 London Olympian in the women's eight and current Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) scholarship holder Tess Gerrand (NSW) and last year's U23 World Rowing Championships silver medallist in the women's four, Katrina Bateman (Victoria).
They lined up together to win the women's pair in a time of 7:21.79 ahead of newcomer Charlotte Sutherland and partner Lucy Stephan, who raced the U23 four with Bateman last year.
Those two crews then combined to win the women's four later in the day.
With both boat classes showing a solid field in the finals, chances are looking good for a women's eight to represent Australia at the upcoming first round of the 2013 World Rowing Cup.
Last year's U23 World Rowing Championships bronze medallists in the quad scull Sasha Belonogoff and Ryan Edwards (both NSW), who row out of the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, also underlined their Senior A national team aspirations by winning the men's doubles scull in a dominant manner, leading from start to finish. 2012 Olympian Nick Purnell and Olympic bronze medallists in the quad Chris Morgan finished 5.64 seconds behind in second place. Dan Noonan, the stroke of the London 2012 bronze-medal winning quads, and Olympic reserve Fergus Pragnell followed in third, but will only race on a state team level this year.
Sasha Belonogoff and Nick Purnell also made it onto the podium in the men's single scull coming second and third respectively in a race, which was won in a time of 6:59.67 by Olympic men's eight finalist Tom Swann, who is returning to sculling.
The first round of the World Rowing Cup will take place at Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith from March 22-24 as part of the inaugural Sydney International Rowing Regatta (March 18-24).
It will be the first time that a World Rowing Cup is being held in Australia.