OLIVIA Douglas will be the first young person to represent Wakool Shire Council at a world championship event when she rows for Australia next month.
Eighteen-year-old Olivia and her crew will compete in the Australian Junior Girls Pathway eight at the Junior World Championships in Trakai, Lithuania from August 7 to 11.
Having completed much of her schooling in Tooleybuc, Olivia took up rowing four years ago when attending boarding school in Melbourne.
The Year 12 student’s rowing achievements include competing in the first VIII last year, winning the Head of Schoolgirls Regatta in Geelong and taking out two national titles in Perth and Penrith.
Following this success, Olivia and another boarder from Deniliquin were selected for the National Junior Rowing Team in April and after completing a time trial the team was cleared to represent Australia at the World Championships.
“It was such a privilege to be given the opportunity to do something like this and I’m truly thrilled to be able to do this,” Olivia said.
“We’ve definitely come a long way since we started in April and we’ve all grown really close to each other.”
Since selection, training has become a full time job, with up to 35 hours a week spent on the water.
As well as extensive training hours, Douglas and her fellow crew members are in the process of fundraising around $7500 each to assist in offsetting the cost of travel and pay a significant seat fee to meet many of the tour and preparation costs.
At Wakool Shire Council’s June meeting, councillors nominated to donate $250 towards the cost of the competition, after rejecting an original recommendation to donate $500.
Councillor Colin Membrey questioned a jump in precedent from previous sporting donations of $250, saying that Olivia’s donation should be in line with similar requests.
Donations have previously been given to two Wakool Shire residents — horse trainer Jane Matheson and Daniel Searle, who was chosen for the Australian Blind Cricket Team in 2010.
Mayor Andrew Douglas was absent as he declared a pecuniary interest as Olivia’s uncle.
This amount will be added to the $4500 the family is hoping to raise before next month through a range of elite athlete grants and corporate and community donations.
