It has been an action packed morning from the 2012 Australian Rowing Championships as a plethora of national titles continues to be handed out at the Champion Lakes Regatta Centre.

Following the early morning single sculls and pairs finals in the under 23 classes, along with the lightweight finals, attention focused on the under 17 and under 19 titles in the single sculls.

Radford College’s Luke Letcher upset defending champion Sam Heron in the final of the men’s under 19 single scull with a brilliant row that saw him win from Lane 6.

Letcher crossed in 7:38.57, just 0.77 seconds ahead of Heron to claim his first national single sculls title and the Thomas Keller Memorial Trophy.

Swan River rower Natasha Gay showed her growing strength in the sport with a 4.5 second victory in the final of the women’s under 19 single scull.

Gay has impressed so far this week across a number of events and once again looked graceful across her home waters.

Gay looked comfortable throughout the race and then extended her lead in the final 250m to win in a time of 8:29.81 ahead of Eleni Kalimnios and Swan River’s Lilly Tinapple.

The under 17 women’s single scull title went to Brisbane and GPS rower Natasha MacDonald with an emphatic victory over the field.

MacDonald led a QLD one-two over Uni of QLD rower Kate Rowan in a time of 8:25.37 by close to 11 seconds.

Third place went to local Swan River rower Catherine Woodall who was less than a second further back.

The under 17 men’s single scull title was won by Essendon’s Tyron Boorman in an impressive time of 7:56.20.

Boorman seized the gold medal ahead of Jack Harrison and Tom Schramko.

By: David Polglase – Updated on: 9/03/2012