Jessica's Story
Queensland born Jessica Hall made her Australian Olympic Team debut at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls. The 2012 U23 World Champion, in the same boat class, competed alongside Madeleine Edmunds, Jennifer Cleary and Kerry Hore.
The boat made a disappointing exit from the 2016 Games when the crew finished fifth in a tightly fought repechage and therefore missed out on a spot in the A-Final. The crew powered out the start, up against crews from the Netherlands, Poland, Australia, USA and China. With 100 metres to go Australia, China and the USA were bow ball to bow ball, and the finish resulted in a photo-finish to decide who would join Poland and the Netherlands in the A-Final. Once the photos were back, it was declared that Australia had finished fifth, a mere 0.06 seconds behind China, and 0.11 seconds behind USA, who had nabbed the final two qualification spots. The result was somewhat unexpected as the crew had had a good lead-up to the Games, finishing with a silver medal at the final 2016 World Rowing Cup 3 in Poland, the last international racing event before the Games began.
Taking up rowing in 2005, Hall won her first medal at the Junior World Rowing Championships in 2009 when she won a silver medal in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls. She backed up that performance in 2012 with a World Championships title in 2012 at the U23 level.
A member of Brisbane and GPS Rowing Club, the 24-year-old had a strong national season, and was crowned the Australian National champion in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls in Penrith, New South Wales.
A regular medallist at World Rowing Cups, Hall is currently studying a joint honours degree, in Criminology and Psychology, at Griffith University.
