With over fifty events across club and junior levels, spectators were spoilt for choice while reflecting on the weekend’s highlights. Though some familiar names skipped the weekend as they hold out to return in a fortnight for Christmas Regatta, a handful of standout performances detailed here give a glimpse of the already-high standard of racing the North Island clubs have to offer.
Men’s and Women’s Open Single Sculls
A testament to the might of one of the most successful clubs on the North Island, Waikato Rowing Club not only dominated across various events but also reinforced the impressive depth of talent in their squad. To name only a few, the men’s and women’s open single sculls categories had spectators glued to the lanes as both races came down to an aggressive back-and-forth between their scullers in the end stages of the races. In the women’s event, Angalla Carney pulled out a strong finish ahead of Tegan O’Dwyer, who left a significant stretch of clear water back to teammates Mollie Nicol and Amelia Barrell, finishing third and fourth, respectively. In a similar vein, the men’s event saw Karl Manson separate himself from Ben Olifers by a mere half-second, the frontrunners again breaking away from the group, including teammate Ryan Gass. Securing half the available positions in a single scull final is no mean feat and a sign of great promise for the club’s athletes ahead of the latter half of the season ahead.
Boys Under-16 Coxed Four and Quad
It will come as no surprise to readers to hear that the formidable Hamilton Boys’ High School prevailed in both the junior and novice events. Taking out both the Under 16 coxed four and quadruple sculls, as well as the novice coxed four and eight convincingly, Hamilton Boys rarely faltered, executing well-practised racing tactics consistently throughout the weekend. However, it is worth noting King’s College did not make it easy for them, often pushing through the rest of the field to put on significant pressure, and repeatedly going on to secure the remaining top positions.
Hamilton’s coaches, Alex Kennedy and Bruce Holden, along with Robin Clarke, have proven time and time again that they know how to lead a dominant junior programme, with this season already looking to be following the trend. The increasing growth of these programmes like Kings, Hamilton Boys, and Auckland Grammar, enabling them to each secure multiple spots in finals across the board, has already shown to be driving up the standard and competitive nature of school-level rowing rapidly; a phenomenon not likely to slow down any time soon.
Women’s Open Coxless Four and Pairs
With the newly established North Island Performance Hub collating a team of some of the most promising athletes across the regions, the group took on their second regatta under these new colours, achieving some positive results. Most notably, their performance in the women’s coxless four held a commanding lead, with Waikato’s Katie Lush and Isobel Eliadis-Watson joining forces with West End’s Lucy Burrell and Alice Fahey of Star Boating Club, finishing over twenty seconds ahead of the competition from Waikato and their affiliated school team. The four then went on to also take the top two positions in the Open pairs event, with the Waikato duo of Eliadis-Watson and Lush being the ones to claim victory.
Boys and Girls Under-18 Coxed Fours
Not surprisingly, Waikato Diocesan School had another strong showing this week following their success at Karāpiro Memorial Regatta a few weeks ago. In keeping with their consistent quality across all age groups, the club went on to secure wins in both the Under-16 and Under-18 coxed fours. An intense race for the Under-18 victory saw Waikato Dio cling to their lead ahead of Westlake Girls High School, only a length separating the two at the line. Coxed by Kiri Ormsby, Lucy Turnbull, Pippa Melville, Alexi Buchanan and Jessica Hawkes added their win to a set of impressive performances from the day, in which they challenged themselves to both the pair and the eight at the Club grade level. Extending themselves to race in the finals of these higher grades is clearly paying off for the crews, and I’d be confident expecting to see some similar successes from them as the season progresses.
The boys’ race brought together again the larger programmes with multiple crews qualifying from the likes of King’s College, Hamilton Boys and Westlake Boys High School. As one of three crews qualifying for the final from Westlake, three of last season’s drought-ending Maadi Cup winners return for their final season, already working to follow in the footsteps of their previous Springbok four. Sam Bird, Donovan Pivac and Quinn Oliver-Porter joined Noah Geelan de Kabbath to take the win, with Auckland Grammar pushing away with them to finish runners-up a few lengths behind, leaving Hamilton Boys and Kings to round out the top four.
Boys and Girls Under-18 Coxed Eights
Following the lake housing the excitement of the Maadi Regatta earlier this year, the next generation of Levin Jubilee and Maadi Cup hopefuls took to the lanes this weekend. With several clubs opting to try their top crews in the club grades, these events presented a great opportunity for even more school crews to get a feel for the category. Supporters and coaches alike dared not blink in the final 100m of the Boys Under-18 race, with five lanes across barreling towards the line. A gutsy effort from Auckland Grammar School saw them snatch the win by a blistering half-second. Runners-up King’s College, with their now-signature late-stage hunt, ruthlessly chased the leaders, pushing third-place Hamilton Boys’ High School down by a bowball at the line. A similarly well-executed race led by coxswains Amelia McNaughton and Pieta Cumming demonstrated the might of Baradene College in the Girl’s Under-18 event, with their two crews securing the leading positions ahead of Westlake Girls High School following a consistent, increasing drive led them away from the group throughout the second half of the course.
