| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 20 November 1976 | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | |||||||||||||||||
| Club | Melbourne University Boat Club | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Eliza Blair (born 20 November 1976) is an Australian architect and former representative rower. She was a national champion, a 1997 world champion and the standing world record holder in the women's lightweight coxless pair.
Blair's senior rowing was done from the Melbourne University Boat Club.
Blair raced in Victorian representative women's crews who contested the Victoria Cup at the Interstate Regatta. Till 1998 that race was in lightweight coxless four and Blair raced in Victorian fours in 1996 and 1997 (to victory). [1] From 1999 the lightweight women's interstate race was contested in quad sculls. Blair raced for Victoria in quads in 1999 (to victory) and in 2000. [2]
Blair's first Australian representative appearance was in the 1995 u/23 Trans Tasman series where she raced in a lightweight pair. Her senior Australian representative debut was the following year in a lightweight coxless pair at the 1996 World Rowing Championships, a lightweight only regatta in Strathclyde, Scotland. She raced with her Victorian team-mate Justine Joyce to a fifth place. [3] The following year at Aiguebelette 1997 still paired with Joyce, Blair won World Championship gold in a lightweight coxless pair. [4]
As a result of the women's lightweight coxless pair being retired from international racing in 1997, Blair's 7:18:32 time set with Joyce is the standing world's best time in that event.
By 1998 Blair had switched to sculling and she competed at international World Rowing Cups that year in firstly a double scull and then the quad. For the 1998 World Rowing Championships in Cologne, Blair was selected in the lightweight quad scull with Josephine Lips, Rebecca Joyce and Dearne Grant. They placed fifth. [4]
At the 2000 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland Blair rowed in Australia's lightweight women's quad. The next month that same crew contested the lightweight quad scull at the 2000 World Rowing Championships in Zagreb, Croatia and Blair won a silver medal in a crew with Catriona Roach, Sally Causby and Amber Halliday. It was Blair's last international appearance for Australia [4]
Amber Jae Halliday is a former rower and cyclist from Adelaide, South Australia. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and a three-time world-champion in lightweight rowing. She rowed for South Australia on nine occasions for six victories in Interstate Regattas and won numerous Australian titles at the Australian National Championships.
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.
Sally Causby is an Australian former rower – a national champion and two time World Champion.
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.
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.
Samuel Beltz is an Australian former lightweight rower. He is a 16-time national champion, a world champion and dual Olympian. He competed at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics and represented Australia at the premier world class regattas over a fifteen-year period from 1999 to 2014.
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.
Lyall McCarthy OAM is a former Australian national champion lightweight rower and national rowing coach. He has coached Australian crews to gold medals at the World Rowing Championships and the Olympic Games.
Gary Joseph James Lynagh is an eleven time Australian national champion, three time World Champion and Olympian lightweight rower. He represented Australia at every premier international regatta from 1990 to 1998.
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.
Alister Foot is an Australian world champion lightweight rower. He won a gold medal at the 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled in the lightweight men's eight.
Catriona Roach is an Australian former lightweight rower - a national champion and a 2001 World Champion.
Justine Joyce is an Australian former representative rower. She is national champion and a world champion and is the standing world record holder in the women's lightweight coxless pair.
Josephine Lips is an Australian former representative rower. She was a national champion and 2001 World champion.
Maia Simmonds is an Australian former representative rower. She is a three-time national champion, rowed for her home state of Western Australia in both lightweight and heavyweight crews, in sculling and sweep-oared boats and won a silver medal at the 2014 World Rowing Championships.
Sarah Pound is an Australian former representative lightweight rower. She is a three-time national champion and won a silver medal at the 2014 World Rowing Championships.
Hamish Parry is a former Australian representative lightweight rower. He was a nine-time national champion in both sculling and sweep-oared crews and has sculled at underage and senior world championships from 2013 to 2021.
Katrina Bateman is an Australian former representative rower. She is a ten-time Australian national champion, winning four national titles in the single year of 2015 and rowing in successful Victorian Queen's Cup crews for six consecutive years from 2011-2016. She was twice a medallist at underage world championships and has won gold, silver and bronze medals at World Rowing Cups between 2013 and 2019.
Anneka Reardon is an Australian representative lightweight rower. She is a five time Australian national champion and has represented at senior World Championships.
Evelyn Adams née Gardiner and later Sommer, is an Australian pioneer representative rower. With Lydia Miladinovic she rowed in Australia's first international representative women's crew. A ten-time Australian national champion, accomplished as both a sculler and sweep-oarswoman, Adams' two World Rowing Championship appearances were made as a heavyweight whilst four of her Australian championship titles were achieved in the lightweight division. She represented at the 1974 World Rowing Championships and 1978 World Rowing Championships.
