Adair Janelle Ferguson (born 5 October 1955) is an Australian former World Champion lightweight rower. She became Australia's first female world champion rower in 1985 in only her second year of rowing.

Club and state rowing

Ferguson had represented Queensland in

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

before taking up rowing with the Commercial Rowing Club in Brisbane at the age of 29 and winning various Queensland titles in 1984, her first year.Ferguson at Sport Australia Hall of Fame
/ref> In 1985, only her second season of rowing and her first as a sculler, she was undefeated throughout Australia and at the 1985

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

won the national lightweight single scull title and also raced in an open-weight

double scull A double scull, also abbreviated as a 2x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for two persons who propel the boat by sculling with two oars each, one in each hand. Racing boats (often called "shells") ar ...

to second place. At the Interstate Regatta at those same championships she represented Queensland for the women's national single sculling title and won the Nell Slatter Trophy. She repeated this feat in 1988 and 1990. She was the Australian lightweight sculls champion in 1985 and 1989; the heavyweight sculls champion in 1986; and shared the double sculls title in 1986 and 1988. After a break and motherhood Ferguson returned to rowing at the elite national level in the mid 90s. She again won the Australian national lightweight single sculls title in 1993 and 1994.

National representative rowing

Ferguson's stellar rise at the 1985 nationals saw her selected to represent Australia at the

1985 World Rowing Championships The 1985 World Rowing Championships refer to the World Rowing Championships held from 26 August to 1 September 1985 at Hazewinkel in Heindonk, Belgium. Medal summary Medalists at the 1985 World Rowing Championships were: Men's events ...

Hazewinkel The Hazewinkel is a 2000-meter rowing and regatta course belonging to Sport Vlaanderen in Heindonk, municipality of Willebroek, near Mechelen, Belgium. The site consists of a finish tower, boathouses, a cafeteria, and eight basic huts that ho ...

. She beat her fancied Romanian rival Maria Micșa and in the process became Australia's first ever female rowing world champion. She attempted to defend her title at Nottingham 1986 but finished fifth. Ferguson won two selection trials for the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games - the New South Wales and Victorian titles. She was picked in that squad, went to Edinburgh but contracted a virus and was laid up in bed in the lead-up to the event. Her main competition was the New Zealand sculler, Philippa Baker who passed Ferguson with 800m to go. Ferguson summoned all her resources to get to the front and won the gold medal in a tight finish. Ferguson made national selection in the late 1980s and raced the lightweight single scull at Bled 1989 and Lake Barrington 1990. Ferguson represented Australia eight times at various international competitions but never at an Olympic Games. 1988 was considered to be her best chance of winning a medal but that year the Australian selectors decided not to send any female rowing competitors.

Accolades

She was named the 1985 Australian Athlete of the Year; in achieving the honour she beat fellow nominees

Jeff Fenech Jeff Fenech (born 28 May 1964) is an Australians, Australian former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2008. He List of boxing triple champions, won world titles in three weight divisions, having held the International Boxing Feder ...

and

Allan Border Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the Captain (cricket), captain of the Australia national cricket team, Australian team, and l ...

.Ferguson biog at Australian Women's Register
/ref> In 1986 she was admitted to the

Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame was established on 10 December 1985 to recognise the achievements of Australian sportsmen and sportswomen. The inaugural induction included 120 members with Don Bradman, Sir Don Bradman as the first inductee and ...

. In 1987 she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her services to rowing.

After rowing

Ferguson has degrees in medicine, science and human movement, and a graduate diploma in nutritional science. She practices as a

general practitioner A general practitioner (GP) is a doctor who is a Consultant (medicine), consultant in general practice. GPs have distinct expertise and experience in providing whole person medical care, whilst managing the complexity, uncertainty and risk ass ...

and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She stood as the

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party splinter groups, it was Australia's lar ...

candidate in the blue ribbon Liberal seat of Ryan in the 1990 federal election.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Adair 1955 births Living people Australian female rowers World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games gold medallists in rowing Commonwealth Games rowers for Australia Rowers at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees Medallists at the 1986 Commonwealth Games Place of birth missing (living people) Australian Democrats politicians 20th-century Australian sportswomen