Zita van de Walle

Zita van de Walle (later Briones, born 8 February 1973) is an Australian former rower – a national champion and World Champion.

Zita van de Walle

Personal information
Born	(1973-02-08) 8 February 1973
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Club	Sydney Uni Women's Rowing Club
Medal record Women's rowing Representing  Australia World Rowing Championships 2002 Seville Lwt quad scull

Club and state rowing

Born in Sydney, van de Walle's senior rowing was done from the Sydney University Women's Rowing Club.

van de Walle raced in New South Wales representative women's crews who contested the Victoria Cup at the Interstate Regatta from 2001 to 2004.[1] She won New South Wales state championships in 2004 in the single and double.[2]

International representative rowing

She made her first Australian senior representative appearance in the lightweight quad at the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Seville, Spain. With Marguerite Houston, Miranda Bennett and Hannah Every-Hall she rowed to a gold medal, a World Championship title and a new world record time.[3] It was Australia's second successive World Championship win in this boat class.

van de Walle was Australia's lightweight single sculls entrant to the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Milan. She placed fourteenth [4] For the lightweight only World Championships in 2004 (being an Olympic year), Australia selected a development squad for the next Olympiad. van der Walle made the quad scull which placed seventh.[5] It was her last international outing in Australian colours.[4]

Personal

Zita is married to the Spanish rowing coach Gonzalo Briones.[6] She has coached Sydney Uni women's crews as Zita Briones and is an accountant.

References

1. 2004 Interstate Regatta
2. State Champion 2004
3. "2002 World Championship – Lightweight Women's Quadruple Sculls – Final". www.worldrowing.com. FISA. Retrieved 6 October 2014.
4. van de Walle at World Rowing
5. 2004 World C'ships
6. SUWBC appoints Briones

• Zita van de Walle at FISA WorldRowing.com