Caroline Buchanan in Canberra after competing in the London Olympic Games. Photo: Melissa Adams
Gold cruelly escaped them at last year's London Olympics, but this has been the year for cyclist Caroline Buchanan and rower Kim Crow to shine as Canberra's golden girls of sport.
The pair were rewarded as such on Friday, Crow voted best female athlete at the World Rowing Awards in Estonia, while Buchanan became just the third woman to be named Australian cyclist of the year in a ceremony in Melbourne.
While they suffered heartbreak in London, their response this year has been the making of them both.
Australian Olympic rower Kim Crow.
Crow was Australia's best-performed rower at the London Games, but fell just short of Olympic gold.
She claimed bronze in the single scull and silver in the double scull with Goulburn's Brooke Pratley.
This year she's been without peer, no one able to knock her off the top of the podium.
Caroline Buchanan's emotions spill over after the women's BMX final at the 2012 London Olympics, where she missed the start badly to finish out of the medals. Photo: Iain Gillespie
The 28-year-old lawyer, who works and trains in Canberra, became the first Australian woman to win the single sculls world championship with victory in South Korea in September.
She completed the season undefeated in the single scull, winning two World Cup events as well. Crow was honoured to receive recognition from the World Rowing Federation, FISA, but has already declared her sights are on Olympic gold in Rio in 2016.
''There are so many fantastic people in the rowing world and it's a real honour to receive this award,'' Crow said. ''Rowing is very much a team sport, even in the single scull, and there have been a lot of people that have been a really important part of my journey.''
Buchanan was in tears on the BMX track at the London Olympics, qualifying first but finishing fifth in the final. ''It seriously feels like a nightmare,'' she said at the time.
This year has been a dream run.
She competed in three world championships, in three countries in the space of 56 days. It seemed ambitious, but Buchanan became the first Australian cyclist to claim two world titles in two different disciplines - BMX and 4X - in the same year.
The 23-year-old dominated the Cycling Australia awards, winning all four gongs she was eligible for. She is only the third woman to claim the main award - the Sir Hubert Opperman medal and trophy - as Australian cyclist of the year, joining Anna Meares (2008, 2012) and Anna Wilson (1999).
She was also named mountain bike and BMX cyclist of the year, and topped the votes for the people's choice award.
''To win an 'Oppy', it is without a doubt the biggest award or achievement I have ever won,'' Buchanan said.
''It shows that all the hard work and stress not just in 2013, but since I was a little girl, has paid off.
''I guess if you aim for the stars, you will land on the moon.''
No comments:
Post a Comment