| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 5 October 1955 (age 68) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Commercial Rowing Club | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Adair Janelle Ferguson OAM [1] (born 5 October 1955) [2] is an Australian former World Champion lightweight rower. She became Australia's first female world champion rower in 1985 in only her second year of rowing.
Ferguson had represented Queensland in cross country running before taking up rowing with the Commercial Rowing Club in Brisbane at the age of 29 and winning various Queensland titles in 1984, her first year. [1]
In 1985, only her second season of rowing and her first as a sculler, she was undefeated throughout Australia and at the 1985 Australian Rowing Championships won the national lightweight single scull title and also raced in an open-weight double scull to second place. At the Interstate Regatta at those same championships she represented Queensland for the women's national single sculling title and won the Nell Slatter Trophy. She repeated this feat in 1988 and 1990. She was the Australian lightweight sculls champion in 1985 and 1989; the heavyweight sculls champion in 1986; and shared the double sculls title in 1986 and 1988. [1]
After a break and motherhood Ferguson returned to rowing at the elite national level in the mid 90s. She again won the Australian national lightweight single sculls title in 1993 and 1994. [3]
Ferguson's stellar rise at the 1985 nationals saw her selected to represent Australia at the 1985 World Rowing Championships at Hazewinkel. She beat her fancied Romanian rival Maria Micșa and in the process became Australia's first ever female rowing world champion. [4] She attempted to defend her title at Nottingham 1986 but finished fifth. [5]
Ferguson won two selection trials for the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games - the New South Wales and Victorian titles. She was picked in that squad, went to Edinburgh but contracted a virus and was laid up in bed in the lead-up to the event. Her main competition was the New Zealand sculler, Philippa Baker who passed Ferguson with 800m to go. Ferguson summoned all her resources to get to the front and won the gold medal in a tight finish. [1]
Ferguson made national selection in the late 1980s and raced the lightweight single scull at Bled 1989 and Lake Barrington 1990. [6]
Ferguson represented Australia eight times at various international competitions but never at an Olympic Games. 1988 was considered to be her best chance of winning a medal but that year the Australian selectors decided not to send any female rowing competitors. [1]
She was named the 1985 Australian Athlete of the Year; in achieving the honour she beat fellow nominees Jeff Fenech and Allan Border. [7]
In 1986 she was admitted to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. [1] In 1987 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her services to rowing.
Ferguson has degrees in medicine, science and human movement, and a graduate diploma in nutritional science. She practices as a general practitioner and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. [8]
She stood as the Australian Democrats candidate in the blue ribbon Liberal seat of Ryan in the 1990 federal election. [7]
Peter Thomas AntonieOAM is an Australian former rower. He is an Olympic and Commonwealth games gold medallist and world champion. He is regarded as one of Australia's greatest ever rowers figuring in senior representative squads consistently from 1977 to 1996 and representing Australia on eighteen occasions at three Olympics and fifteen World Rowing Championships. He competed at the highest levels as both a sculler and a sweep oarsman, in both lightweight and open divisions, across all boat classes. He won twenty-nine Australian national championship titles in his career.
Michael Scott McKay, OAM, known as Mike McKay, is an Australian rower, a four-time world champion, a four-time Olympic medallist and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. From 1990 to 1998 he was a member of Australia's prominent world class crew – the coxless four known as the Oarsome Foursome.
Sally Newmarch, now known as Sally Callie, is an Australian former rower – a four-time national champion, a medal winning national representative who competed at World Rowing Championships from 1993 to 2004 and a three time Olympian.
Duncan Seth Free is a retired Australian rower and Olympic gold medallist. He is 4-time Olympian and two-time world champion who represented Australia at four world rowing championships in both sculls and sweep oared boats. He was a six-time Australian national sculling champion.
Anthony John Edwards is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a five time Olympian, triple Olympic medallist, a world champion and a six-time Australian national champion. He represented Australia at the premier world regattas consistently over a twenty-year period from 1993 to 2012.
Andrew Dollman Cooper is a former Australian Olympic Champion and World Champion rower. He is a national champion, dual Olympian and two-time World Champion who achieved success as a member of Australia's "Oarsome Foursome" in 1991 and 1992.
Stephen Mark Hawkins OAM is an Australian former national champion, World Champion and Olympic gold medal winning lightweight rower.
The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's premier regatta, with states, clubs and schools sending their best crews. The Championships commence with the National Regatta - men's, women's and lightweight events in open, under 23, under 19, under 17 and school age events. Rowers at the National Regatta race in their local club colours with composite crews permitted. The Championships conclude with the Interstate Regatta - currently eight events competed by state representative crews or scullers selected by the state rowing associations. The states compete for an overall points tally which decides the Zurich Cup.
Paul Reedy is an Australian former rower. He is a dual Olympian, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games silver medalist who competed over a seventeen-year period at the elite level. He was a fourteen-time Australian national champion across both sculling and sweep-oared boats and then coached six Australian crews to national championship titles. He later coached at the London Rowing Club and was appointed as British national Head Coach from 2009. He took Great Britain's lightweight women's sculling crews to Olympic and World Championship gold medals in 2012 and 2016.
Stephen Frederick Evans OAM is an Australian former national champion, world champion, dual Olympian and Olympic medal winning rower.
Bruce Hick is an Australian national champion, three time World Champion and dual Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia over a fifteen-year period and rowed at ten World Rowing Championships.
Rebecca Susan Joyce is an Australian former rower, a sculler in the lightweight division. She was a five-time national champion, a 1995 world champion and Olympic medal winner.
Virginia Lee is an Australian former rower. She was a four-time national champion, a 1992 world champion, a dual Olympian and an Olympic bronze medallist who competed in both sweep oared and sculling events in the lightweight division.
Russell Robertson, known as Rusty Robertson, was a New Zealand-born, world class rowing coach of New Zealand and later, Australian national representative rowing crews. He was the national rowing coach of New Zealand from 1967 to 1976, and the national coach of Australia from 1979 to 1984.
Jeff Sykes is an Australian national champion lightweight rower and a builder of world class rowing racing shells.
Marina Cade is an Australian former representative rower. A lightweight sweep oar rower and later a sculler, her senior rowing was with the Melbourne University Boat Club. She was a 1992 world champion.
Dale Caterson is an Australian former national champion, World Champion, Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medal winning rowing coxswain. He is Australia's first World Champion coxswain, having steered the 1986 World Championship men's eight to victory.
Alice McNamara is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. She was a national champion and a back-to-back world champion in 2007 and 2008. She represented Australia at nine successive World Rowing Championships in lightweight sculling events.
Tara Kelly is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. She was a national champion and 2007 world champion.
Anneka Reardon is an Australian representative lightweight rower. She is a five time Australian national champion and has represented at senior World Championships.
World champions – Lightweight women's single sculls | |
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| FISA championships | |
| Official world championships |
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