Three Tasmanian athletes have joined an elite group with lawn bowler Rebecca Van Asch, sailor Matt Bugg and rower Ciona Wilson inducted into the Tasmanian Institute of Sport’s Champions Club.
Established in 2006, the club recognises retired athletes who have held a TIS scholarship for more than five years and achieved exceptional performances on the international stage. There are 24 existing members.
This year’s intake is the second largest since the Champions Club was founded with nine inaugural members. Four were added in 2013 and two more in 2018 and 2022 with cyclist Richie Porte and rower Georgia Nesbitt the most recent inductees last year.
Van Asch is one of Australia’s most decorated lawn bowlers having played more than 200 games for her country. Hailing from Invermay Bowls Club, she joined the TIS in 2004 and remained on scholarship for 18 years until her retirement.
Van Asch won world titles in the women’s pairs in 2012 and four years later added the fours and triples. She added Commonwealth Games golds in the triples and fours on the Gold Coast in 2018.
Tasmania’s only world and Commonwealth Games bowls champion, Van Asch was named the joint 2017 Tasmanian Athlete of the Year and, since her second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and retirement in 2022, has continued to be involved in the sport as high performance manager of Bowls Australia.
Hailing from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Bugg was part of the TIS from 2010-17 and won 13 open Australian 2.4 sailing titles.
He finished on the podium in all five major benchmark events between 2015 and 2018, claiming two bronze medals, two silvers and a world title in Sheboygan, USA, in 2018.
A two-time Paralympian, Bugg was named Tasmanian Athlete of the Year following his silver medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
The tenth rower inducted into the Champions Club, Wilson is a fourth-generation member of Tamar Rowing Club having begun the sport at Launceston Grammar School at the age of 13.
Joining the TIS in 2014, Wilson moved to the National Training Centre in Penrith in 2017 after winning the women’s eight and coxless four national titles. Finishing third on her international debut at the world cup in Austria, she was part of the Australian eight which won the Remenham Challenge Cup at the 2018 Henley Royal Regatta and claimed world championship bronze in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Wilson retired after being a travelling reserve for the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and now coaches at Tamar and Scotch Oakburn.
Van Asch, Bugg and Wilson were inducted into the Champions Club at a function in Hobart on Thursday, December 5, 2024.