Marguerite Houston (born 11 July 1981) is an Australian former lightweight rower. She is an Australian national champion, an Olympian and two-time World Champion. She contested state representative events (firstly for Queensland and later for South Australia) at nine successive

Australian Rowing Championships Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

Club and state rowing

Houston was born in

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. Her senior rowing was done from the Toowong Rowing Club in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

Boat Club (UQBC) and later when she relocated to South Australia from the Adelaide University Boat Club. Houston began contesting Australian national lightweight sculling events at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

in 2001 initially for Toowong. In 2004 in UQBC colours she won the national title in a double scull She achieved the national triple in 2005 wearing Adelaide Uni colours winning the single sculls title and at stroke in both the

double scull A double scull 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") are long, narrow, and broadly s ...

and the

quad scull A quadruple sculling boat, often simply called a quad and abbreviated 4x, is a rowing boat used in the sport of competitive rowing. It is designed for four people who propel the boat by sculling with two oars, or "sculls", one in each hand. Rac ...

. She repeated the twosome in 2006 and 2007 (the double and quad) with

Amber Halliday Amber Halliday (born 13 November 1979) is a former rower and cyclist from Adelaide, South Australia. She is an Australian national champion, a dual Olympian and a three-time world-champion in lightweight rowing. She rowed for South Australia on ...

in the stroke seat. In 2008 Houston won another national title in the lightweight quad. Houston was first selected to represent Queensland in the women's Interstate Youth Eight Championship contesting the Bicentennial Cup at the 2000

. From 2001 Houston raced in Queensland representative lightweight women's crews who contested the Victoria Cup at the Interstate Regatta. She rowed in those

s successively from 2001 to 2006; at stroke for the last three of those events. By 2007 Houston had relocated to South Australia to train with and aim for world championship success with Amber Halliday. In 2007 she was selected in the South Australian women's lightweight quad and at that year's Australian Championships she saw her first Victoria Cup victory at the Interstate Regatta rowing in the two seat behind Halliday. In 2008 she stroked the South Australian quad to victory in that same event. Notably, from 2005 to 2008 Houston contested all four events available to a female lightweight sculler at the

– the single, the double, the quad national title and the quad interstate championship. She was victorious in ten of those sixteen races and twice placed second.

International representative rowing

Houston made her first Australian representative appearance at the 2002 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland. That year she was picked in the lightweight

to contest the

2002 World Rowing Championships The 2002 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 15 to 22 September 2002 on the Guadalquivir at Seville, Spain. Adaptive events were held for the first time at a World Championships. Medal summary Men's e ...

in Seville. In a crew with

Zita van de Walle Zita van de Walle (later Briones, born 8 February 1973) is an Australian former representative rower – a national champion and a 2002 world champion. Club and state rowing Born in Sydney, van de Walle's senior rowing was done from the Sydne ...

Miranda Bennett Miranda Bennett (born 1 September 1979 in Bordertown, South Australia) is an Australian former rower who won three World Championship titles. Club and state rowing Bennett's senior rowing was done from the Torrens Rowing Club in Adelaide. She ...

and

Hannah Every-Hall Hannah Every-Hall (born 18 November 1977 in Bendigo) is an Australian former rower, a national champion, World Champion and Olympian. She is married to Michael Hall (born 19 November 1983) and they have a son named Harrison Hall (born 19 Novemb ...

, Houston won the gold, her first World Championship title and set a new world record in the process. At Milan 2003 Houston again raced in the Australian lightweight quad. They won the bronze medal. Australia qualified a lightweight double scull for the Athens Olympics in 2004 being

Sally Newmarch Sally Newmarch (born 2 June 1975), now known as Sally Callie, is an Australian former rower – a four-time national champion, a medal winning national representative who competed at World Rowing Championships from 1993 to 2004 and a three time ...

and Amber Halliday. There is no lightweight quad raced at the Olympics and Houston missed selection in Australia's boat for the lightweight

2004 World Rowing Championships The 2004 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 27 July to 1 August 2004 in conjunction with the World Junior Rowing Championships on lake Banyoles in Catalonia, Spain. Since 2004 was an Olympic year for r ...

. Her 2004 international rowing was therefore restricted to that year's World Rowing Cup III at Lucerne where she placed eight in the double-scull with

. For the

2005 World Rowing Championships The 2005 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 29 August to 4 September 2005 at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course in Kaizu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. The international rowing season usually ends wi ...

Gifu, Japan is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Gifu Prefecture has a population of 1,991,390 () and has a geographic area of . Gifu Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to the north; Ishikawa Prefecture to the northwest, Fuku ...

Houston raced for Australia in the lightweight double scull with Kirsty Fleming. They placed sixth. Still in the lightweight double-scull for the

2006 World Rowing Championships The 2006 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 20 to 27 August 2006 at Dorney Lake, Eton, Great Britain. Medal summary Men Non-Olympic classes Women Non-Olympic classes Wettbewerbe des Pararuderns ...

in Eton, Dorney but now paired with Halliday, Houston had greater success as they won the silver. They stayed together in that same boat the following year for Munich 2007 where Houston and Halliday won the gold bringing Marguerite's second and Amber's third world championship title.Houston at World Rowing
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References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Marguerite 1981 births Living people Australian female rowers Olympic rowers for Australia Rowers at the 2008 Summer Olympics World Rowing Championships medalists for Australia People educated at All Hallows' School 21st-century Australian women Sportswomen from Queensland