| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Grumpy, Mandsy |
| Years active | 1983–1990 |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Rowing |
| Club | Adelaide University Boat Club |
Medal record | |
Amanda Cross is an Australian national champion and national representative lightweight rower. She represented Australia at four World Rowing Championships and at the 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Cross' senior rowing was done from the Adelaide University Boat Club.
Cross made her state representative debut in 1983 when selected in the South Australian women's lightweight four to contest the Victoria Cup in the Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships. [1] She contested further Victoria Cups for South Australia in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1990. She stroked those crews in 1987 and 1990. [2]
Wearing Adelaide University colours Cross competed for national titles at the Australian Rowing Championships on numerous occasions. She won the women's lightweight pair championship in 1984 and 1985 with Karin Riedel and again in 1986. [3] She contested the lightweight four title from 1984 to 1988. [4]
Cross made her Australian representative debut in Montreal in 1984 at the first World Rowing Championships that included lightweight events. There was no FISA championship for the women's eight but Australia sent crews to contest the eights races in anticipation of such events being included in later FISA programmes. The crew performed well taking the silver medal with Cross and her Australian champion team-mate Karin Riedel up the bow end. [5]
In 1985 Cross was in the two seat of the lightweight coxless four who took the bronze medal at the 1985 World Rowing Championships in Hazewinkel. In 1986 she was selected in the bow seat of the Australian lightweight four who competed at the 1986 World Rowing Championships in Nottingham. That crew placed fourth. [5] The same crew went on to the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, where they won a silver medal. [6]
Cross and Pamela Westendorf-Marshall joined Rebecca Joyce and Sally Ninham in the Australian lightweight four in 1990. They gained some international experience with a valuable tour of North America before coming back to Tasmania for the 1990 World Rowing Championships in Lake Barrington. In the final Cross rowed in the bow seat of the Australian four to a silver medal. [5]
Cross took up coaching after retiring from competitive rowing. She coached the South Australian State Junior Development Team and at Pembroke School and Prince Alfred College.
She competed in surf boats at State and National competitions, coached Surf Lifesaving South Australia State Teams and was a Surf Education Instructor.
James Bruce Tomkins, is an Australian rower, seven-time World Champion and a three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is Australia's most awarded oarsman, having made appearances at six Olympic games ; eleven World Championships ; four Rowing World Cups and eighteen state representative King's Cup appearances – the Australian blue riband men's VIII event,. Tomkins is one of only five Australian athletes and four rowers worldwide to compete at six Olympics. From 1990 to 1998 he was the stroke of Australia's prominent world class crew – the coxless four known as the Oarsome Foursome.
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.
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.
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.
Robyn Grey-Gardner is an Australian former eight-time national champion, national representative, Olympic and Commonwealth Games medal winning rower. She won Australian championships in all three sweep-oared women's rowing events - the coxless pair, the coxless four and in the eight.
Paul Anthony Thompson MBE is an Australian elite level rowing coach and former rower. As a rower he was an Australian under-age champion, won a silver medal at the 1985 U23 World Championships and rowed in senior King's Cup eights for both South Australia and New South Wales. He has coached Australian and British crews to World Championship titles and Olympic medals including taking Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. By 2012 he was Great Britain's head coach for women and lightweights and took British crews to three gold and two silver medals at London 2012. Since 2022 he has been Rowing Australia's High Performance Director.
Blair Tunevitsch is an Australian former lightweight rower – a five time national champion and world champion. He won a gold medal at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled with the lightweight men's eight.
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.
Karin Riedel is an Australian national champion and former national representative lightweight rower. She represented Australia at two World Rowing Championships winning medals at both.
Phillip Gardiner is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was an eight-time Australian national champion and won two bronze medals at World Rowing Championships. He made ten appearances for Australia at World Rowing Championships over the seventeen-year period from 1977 to 1994.
Gayle Toogood is an Australian former lightweight rower. She was a thirteen-time national champion and competed at World Championships over a ten-year period from 1984 to 1994. She won medals at two World Championships and at the 1986 Commonwealth Games.
Brigid Cassells is an Australian former lightweight rower. She won silver medals at two World Rowing Championships.
Leeanne Whitehouse is an Australian former lightweight rower. She was a seven-time national champion and won a silver medal at the 1988 World Rowing Championships.
Pamela Westendorf is an Australian former lightweight rower. She won twenty-three Australian national championships, was an Olympian, represented at five World Championships over a twelve-year period and won a silver medal at the 1990 World Rowing Championships.
Andrew Stunell is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. He was a two time Australian national champion, won a silver medal at the 1994 World Rowing Championships and a gold medal at the 1994 Commonwealth Rowing Championships.
Brian Digby is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was an eleven-time national champion, an Australian national representative at seven World Rowing Championships and a Commonwealth Games. He won silver medals at the 1986 Commonwealth Games and at the 1983 World Rowing Championships. For a five year period from 1984 to 1988 he was the consistent stroke of the Australian national champion lightweight coxless four.
Stephen Spurling is an Australian former lightweight rower. He was an Australian national representative at four World Rowing Championships. He won a silver medal at the 1983 World Rowing Championships.
David Palfreyman is an Australian former coxswain, rower and rowing coach. He was a national champion three times as a coxswain and twice as a rower and won a gold medal at the 1962 Commonwealth Games.
Kaylynn Maree Fry is an Australian former rowing coxswain. She was a nine-time national champion, a representative at World Championships, a 1996 Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist.
Paul Francis Rowe was an Australian representative rower and elite level rowing coach. He was an eight-time Australian national champion in both sweep oared and sculling boats across both lightweight and open divisions. He was Australia's lightweight sculling representative at the 1975 World Rowing Championships. He coached scullers and crews to three Australia national title wins and to world championships and to Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
