The 21-year-old delivered, taking to the boat behind veteran Olympic champion Alex Hill and helping deliver his country the title at the World Rowing Cup in Varese, Italy.
The fours is a coxless rowing discipline, meaning there is no coxswain, or stroke caller, on the boat, with each rower using a single oar, distinct from sculling, where rowers employ two each.
Australia trailed by four-tenths of a second behind one of two Dutch crews through the first 500m of the 2km race, but by the halfway mark had gained ascendancy by almost 0.6 seconds.
The Aussies had a notably slower stroke rate to the other crews, allowing them more room to accelerate when the Netherlands made a late push for the line.
Reinehr’s team was able to pull away from the Dutch four in the final few hundred metres, claiming the gold by more than 1.5 seconds.
The Netherlands 1 crew members were joined by their compatriots on the podium, as the second Dutch boat claimed third.
After claiming gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the men’s fours underperformed in Paris last year, inspiring new blood, including Reinehr, to join the squad.
Hill (32) is the veteran of the team and sits in the stroke position, setting the pace for the other rowers, while Reinehr (21), Nikolas Pender (22) and Fergus Hamilton (25) make up a youthful lineup behind him.
Reinehr attended St Joseph’s College in Echuca until 2017, and was a talented youth footballer with Echuca Junior Football Club.
Leaving the region in 2018 to pursue a football career, Reinehr instead got into rowing, rising through the ranks to eventually join the under-23 Australian squad as a 19-year-old.
Reinehr’s under-23s scored consecutive silver medals in 2023 and 2024 at the World Rowing under-23 championships.
Austin’s older sister Sophie is also a successful rower, having represented Victoria and Australia.
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