Verna Westwood
{{short description|Australian rower}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name = Verna Westwood
| full_name =
| image =
| caption =
| nationality = Australian
| sport = Rowing
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|8|30|df=yes}}
| birth_place =
| death_date =
| death_place =
|club = Uni of WA Rowing Club
MUBC
| nationals = ULVA Trophy 1978-1980
| olympics = 1980 Moscow W4+
}}
Verna Westwood (born 30 August 1955) is an Australian former representative rower. She was seven times an Australian national champion, represented at two World Rowing Championships and was a member of Australia's first Olympic representative women's rowing crew, competing in the women's coxed four event at the 1980 Summer Olympics.{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/we/verna-westwood-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418122833/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/we/verna-westwood-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 April 2020 |title=Verna Westwood Olympic Results |accessdate=2 September 2018}}
Club and state rowing
A West Australian, Westwood commenced her senior rowing aged 17 at the University of Western Australia.[https://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/rower-profiles/westwood-verna#gsc.tab=0 Westwood Profile at Austn Rowing History] She won the Australian University Championship title in a Uni of WA coxed four in 1976.[https://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/university-championships/1976#gsc.tab=0 1976 Intervarsity C'Ships] During her representative years at the elite level she raced at national regattas in Melbourne University Boat Club colours.
Her first state selection for Western Australia came in 1977 as a reserve for the coxed four contesting the ULVA Trophy at the annual Interstate Regatta within the Australian Rowing Championships. She did not race. In 1978 she stroked the West Australian women's coxed four to a silver medal in the ULVA Trophy contest. By 1979 Westwood had relocated to Melbourne and the MUBC to pursue her national selection goals. She was selected in the Victorian representative senior coxed fours at stroke in 1979 and in the two seat in 1980, both of which were victors at those year's Interstate Regattas.
At Australian Rowing Championships in the late 1970s Westwood won a number of Australian titles. In Uni of WA colours she won the women's senior four championship in 1978.[https://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/national-championships/1978#w8 1978 Austn C'ships at Austn Rowing History] Racing for the MUBC she won gold in the women's elite coxed four and women's open eight in 1979[https://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/national-championships/1979#w8 Austn C'ships 1979 at Austn Rowing History] and 1980.[https://www.rowinghistory-aus.info/national-championships/1980#w2&gsc.tab=0 Austn C'ships 1980 at Austn Rowing History]
International representative rowing
Westwood made her Australian representative debut in the women's heavyweight eight which rowed to an eighth place at the 1978 World Rowing Championships in Lake Karapiro, New Zealand.[https://worldrowing.com/athlete/verna-westwood?id=11861 Westwood at World Rowing]
In 1979 the Australian champion Victorian women's four including Westwood was selected intact to contest the 1979 World Rowing Championships in Bled. They rowed to a fifth place. That same crew stayed together into the 1980 Olympic year and coached by David Palfreyman, Westwood, Anne Chirnside, Pam Westendorf, Sally Harding and Susie Palfreyman were picked as the first Australian women's Olympian crew, to race as a coxed four at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. They again finished in fifth place.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{sports links}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westwood, Verna}}
Category:Australian female rowers
Category:Olympic rowers for Australia
Category:Rowers at the 1980 Summer Olympics