World Cup selection boost for WA rower's Rio dreams

WA’s Perry Ward is competing among the cream of Australian rowing in Sydney this week, but his end goal is still more than a year from being realised.

The Sydney International Rowing Regatta began yesterday, with a large contingent from WA making the journey.

WAIS rowing coach Rhett Ayliffe said he hoped the WA crews would be on the podium in the King’s and Queen’s cups, which will be staged on Sunday.

“I’m hoping we can get both those boats to the dais,” Ayliffe said. “The aim would be to get the bronze.”

Rowing Australia has also named the squad that will compete at two World Cups in Europe before the world championships team is confirmed.

Ward was named in the lightweight four, a promising step towards his goal of making Australia’s team for next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

“It’s quite a fresh group coming in,” he said.

“There is only one person back in the crew this year that was in it last year.

“Everyone is very keen to see what we can do.”

Ward, 27, recently relocated to Tasmania to work with the rest of the crew under coach Brett Crow in a bid to enhance his Olympic chances.

“It’s the ultimate dream, to not only get there, but also be able to perform at the standard that will make the world and the other categories stand up and look at Australia and look at what we’re doing down here as something special,” he said.