Rowing

From Tuesday, 16th to Friday, 19th February, St Paul's senior rowers competed in the New Zealand Club Champs which is the final regatta for all the clubs throughout New Zealand. The racing endured by the senior rowers was challenging as many had to contest against much older men or women. The first event of the week was the under 18 four of Alex Mason, Zach Oliver, Luc Rodwell, Maxwell Stuart-Jones coxed by Zac Laurich. The four raced in the heats and progressed through to the final for the men’s club four. In the final they had a messy row which earned them a 6th place.

Following the fours race was the men’s under 21 pairs race which the two under 18 pairs entered. The pairs consisted of Mason and Oliver in one, and Rodwell and Stuart-Jones in the other. Both pairs raced in two separate heats. Mason and Oliver came down the course placing 5th and Rodwell and Stuart-Jones placed 8th. Both pairs qualified to make the pairs repecharge and were competing against older rowers all from RPC clubs so both did very well. Mason and Oliver placed a very close 4th in the race, narrowly missing a final. Rodwell and Stuart-Jones placed 5th.

Lucy Travis contested in the Woman’s club single. She placed a close 8th and did very well as she raced against older women. In the repecharge Lucy came down the course to place 4th missing out on her final.

The under 17 four of Mahon, Nabbs, Croasdale, Eksteen coxed by Laurich were entered into the men’s under 19 four event. They were placed in a very competitive heat racing Hamilton Boys’ High School’s top under 18 crew. They needed to place top four to proceed to the final but narrowly missed out coming 5th in the final sprint.
 

January 30th and 31st 2010

By Luc Rodwell (Captain of Rowing) and Zac Oliver

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday all the rowing crews competed at the Cambridge Town Cup Regatta at Karapiro. This was an important regatta as it is one of the stepping stones on the way to the Maadi cup in Twizel in seven weeks time. Crews performed relatively well considering the very hot conditions on Friday and Saturday and the strong wind, pouring rain and choppy conditions on Sunday. All of which made the racing very challenging.

Friday and Saturday were heats for the crews and most crews took the opportunity to qualify for either the A or B final on Sunday. Early Sunday morning, Luc Rodwell and Maxwell Stuart-Jones raced in the B final of the Men’s U18 Pair. They raced well and crossed the line first. Zac Oliver and Alex Mason also raced as a pair to compete in the A final and crossed the line sixth overall. In the Men’s U17 Double Scull event, Grayson Croasdale and Michael Hodge finished seventh in the B final. Racing was extremely challenging in the small boats due to the poor water conditions. The girls had a good day making the B finals in the U17 and U18 Quads. In the U18 Quad, they finished a creditable fourth. This race was then followed by the Men’s U17 Quad in the A final who placed eighth. Later on Sunday afternoon as the weather was deteriorating, the Men’s U18 Four took to the water and had a good race to place fourth in the A final. Straight after this race, the Men’s U17 Four stroked by Hamish Mahon came flying down the course to finish an excellent second in the A final. Then the lightning and thunder came with huge rain which put paid to anymore racing. This was disappointing as the U15 eight had won their heat on Saturday and were hoping to do well in their A final. But there was so much rain that even the roads got flooded. One club even launched a rowing boat on the flooded road and took a few strokes for a laugh. Lucy Travis in single scull and the Novice Eight also missed out on their finals.
All crews gained vital racing experience from the regatta.

A big thank you to Mr Foot, Mr Varney and other coaching staff that made it a highly organized and successful regatta.