EVERY-HALL FINISHES FIFTH

Bendigo Weekly | Bendigo Weekly | 04-Aug-2012

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Hannah Every-Hall, left.
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 BENDIGO Olympian Hannah Every-Hall has finished an accomplished fifth in her Olympic Games rowing final tonight.

The Canberra-based Every-Hall and Women's Lightweight Double Sculls partner Bronwen Watson were no match for British champions Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking, who took gold.

Every-Hall-s final came after Bendigo cyclist Glen O'Shea won silver in the Men's Team Pursuit last night.

Every-Hall's story is an amazing one.

This is from her website:

In the eyes of many women Hannah Every-Hall has done something that deserves a gold medal.
In the last three years after giving birth to her second son Charlie , the 34-year-old has managed to shed 12kg while caring for the two children and return to the top level lightweight rowing winning the last three National Lightweight Single scull titles.
Added to this has been the opportunity to represent Australia in the Lightweight double sculls at the 2010 (4th) and 2012 (5th) world championships.

The former Bendigo/Noosa based mum, now relocated to Canberrra on an AIS scholarship, is trying to inspire others with her own story of how an overweight teenager rose to the highest occasion, not once but twice, to become a world rowing champion.

The first time was when this former rural Victorian netball player, who took up competitive rowing at university, won the under 23 lightweight double scull in 1999, then the Senior lightweight quad scull in 2002.

Most mothers with two growing boys to look after would rest on their laurels and come to grips with the extra family demands.
But Hannah has some unfinished business in London. A little thing called the Olympic Games that were denied her in 2004 when she was at the peak of her powers – up until that point at least.

A serious ovary disorder forced her out of competition for a year but she was on track to make her mark at the Athens Olympic trials when she was floored by an anaphylactic reaction to her cat.

"After that I had to decide whether I wanted to press on for another four years (to the Beijing Olympics) or if I wanted to have a family." Obviously I chose the family option and our two boys Harrison (Nov 2006) and Charlie (Oct 2008) took our attention away from rowing.

But after Charlie came along, a voice kept telling her to go for it – her elusive Olympic dream.

Such has been the speed of her comeback – she has only been back in training for just under 2 years (started July 2009) after six years away from top level rowing – that she has was selected to represent Australia for the 2010 World Rowing Cup tour or Europe. Rowing with Victorian Alice McNamara, Australia's mighty lighty's won the Gold Medal.

The win continued an amazing 11 months for Hannah that  yielded 3 state titles, 3 National Titles and the World Cup Gold. All whilst looking after two small boys and relocating from Noosa to Canberra.

Hannah then continued on to the World Rowing titles in New Zealand in Nov 2010 where after battling tough and rough conditions they managed a 4th place finish.

2011 started much like 2010 with Hannah defending her lightweight single scull title in Adelaide in March and then qualifying for last years european tour which involved stops in London, Lucerne, Varese and Bled where the 2011 World Rowing Championships where they finished 5th.

Hannah, who lists rowing legend Drew Ginn as one of her heroes, lives by the motto "If not now, when? If not me, who?" says balance is the key.

"The kids definitely give me a lot of balance."

Her overall goal in life on her website is simple and to the point: "Combine motherhood and top level competition to prove that mothers can achieve at the highest level."

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