Rowing Australia today announced the appointment of Mark Fangen-Hall as Senior Coach for the National Training Centre in Canberra. Fangen-Hall joins the High Performance Unit after four years as Head Coach of Mercantile Rowing Club in Melbourne as well as being Director of Rowing at Melbourne Grammar School and will oversee a squad of athletes.
Fangen-Hall has over 25-years of experience as an athlete and coach at some of the most illustrious boat clubs in world rowing and brings a wealth of technical knowledge and experience to Rowing Australia. Most recently, Fangen-Hall has coached the Senior A Lightweight Women’s Double Scull of Alice McNamara and Ella Flecker as well as Women’s Pair, Lucy Stephan and Charlotte Sutherland, and has been involved in coaching both Senior A and U23 ARTeam crews since 2012.
Both of Fangen-Hall’s 2014 crews reached finals of the 2014 World Rowing Championships, while Flecker and McNamara also secured silver at World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne. In 2013, Fangen-Hall coached the U23 Women’s Four of Lucy Stephan, Charlotte Sutherland, Alexandra Hagan and Hannah Vermeersch to gold at the World Rowing U23 Championships in Linz, Austria.
British-born Fangen-Hall has also held the role of Assistant Chief Coach at Cambridge University (UK), Head Coach of Kingston Grammar School (UK) and Head Coach of Queen’s University Belfast (UK) and has been based in Australia since the end of 2011 with his roles at Mercantile RC and Melbourne GS.
Upon the announcement of his appointment, Fangen-Hall said: “I am delighted to take up this fantastic role with Rowing Australia. I am looking forward to being based at the National Training Centre in Canberra and being a part of building the best rowing team in the world.
“The opportunity to continue my coaching career at the national level and help develop Australia’s future Olympians is something I am extremely excited about.”
National Performance Director, Chris O’Brien, said of the appointment: “After an extensive recruitment process we’re pleased to have Mark on board in the role of Senior Coach. Mark brings a wealth of international and domestic Australian coaching experience and has worked closely with the Australian Rowing Team in the last few years and this is a natural progression.”