The last stop for South Island big boy eights, between any racing fine-tuning prior to the grand finale of the New Zealand rowing season, commences at the South Island Championships. In a somewhat unpredictable event, it comes down to eights that have spent the last month training together, banging heads alongside eights formed in the draft crews at the National Championships. That means any racing now comes back to being as refined as possible.
Avon Rowing Club
The glazing of the South Island powerhouse continues. The club boated an eight, finishing in a time of 5.46 two weeks back at the Canterbury Championships, finishing a clear 12 seconds in front of second place, being Avon ‘B’. There’s no room for complacency in this boat either, as many of the athletes should be hungry for trial opportunities based on their performance at South Islands and at Nationals. Unlike competitors, Waikato and North Shore, Avon will be truly ‘racing’ the eight for the first time at the New Zealand Nationals. If I had to guess, they’re about to put on a real show.
Avon Rowing Club ‘B’ and ‘C’
The more interesting race in the Premier eight will likely be the two-horse race for second and third. Typically, you’d expect big margins between Avon’s crews, particularly their second and third men’s eight, with the second eight being composed of a mix of senior athletes, many of whom have been in New Zealand teams. This means they were expected to tail the top crew much more closely at the last regatta. However, less than a second separated Avon’s ‘B’ and ‘C’ crew. This includes rowers fresh off their New Zealand U19 campaign, Payo O’Sullivan, Ben Allan and Luke Tompkins. With all the results in mind, it bodes well for the ‘C’ crew in two ways, who are mostly club-graded athletes, nodding to their eventual strength in that category. Furthermore, they have much less stress and much less to lose than many of the athletes in the ‘B’ crew, who will all be eager for a seat in the top crew. This wasn’t a fluke either, as in both the heats and the finals, Avon ‘C’ finished within a couple of seconds of the ‘B’ crew. Club athletes in the ‘C’ crew, Barney Evans and Noah le Quellec, both Avon newcomers who have been dominating the club four and pair this season, will be eager to stir the pot at the next regatta, with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Dunstan Arms Rowing Club
This statement really dictates the ‘competitiveness’ of the South Island racing, but in a time of 6.02 at Canterbury Champs, Dunstan boated a coxless quad to race the Premier eights, finishing only 16 seconds behind the winning boat from Avon and two seconds behind Avon’s ‘C’ crew, who placed third. Sure, this is unusual, but Dunstan’s top rowers will be far more eager to win the Quad than the Eight. To keep this short and sweet, a quad may medal in this category come the South Islands if they get the go-ahead! At this point, it is challenging to speculate, but either way, it’s an impressive feat.
School Crews
The school rowers have been sitting far behind the club athletes this season; however, in a race that seemingly was long-term rival, Christchurch Boy’s High School’s to win, Christ College and St Bedes left Canterbury Champs the faster crews. It appears unlikely for any school crew to medal in the event, and they will also be reliant on the school crews entering the Prem eights rather than the U19 eight (they can’t race both at the two events that follow each other in the racing schedule). Looking back to Canterbury Champs, Christchurch Boys, who raced the Premier eights, finished the final in a time of 6.04. On the other hand, St Bedes finished in the event beforehand in a time of 6.01, with Christ College only two seconds behind.
Predictions
As my opinion has been somewhat obvious, it will be the Avon ‘A’ who will take the gold in the Premier eights at South Island. However, I want to through a spanner in the works and add to some possible pot stirring. Avon’s ‘C’ crew will finish in second. The rowers in this boat have the luxury of much less stress over having to ‘prove themselves’ and will row much better as a consequence, displacing Avon ‘B’ from a silver medal.
