There is a lot at stake for Otago's elite rowers when they
compete at the South Island championships at Lake Ruataniwha
this weekend.
''It is the national small boat trials,'' Otago manager Sonya
Walker told the Otago Daily Times.
''It is part of the high performance criteria to get an
invite to the national trials later this month.''
Otago rowers competing in the small boat events are Olympic
champion Hamish Bond, Lucy Strack and Alistair Bond from the
North End club, and Fiona Bourke and Fergus Fauvel from the
Otago University club.
They are all training at New Zealand rowing's
high-performance centre at Lake Karapiro.
Oamaru's Johannah Kearney is training at the Southern
Regional Performance Centre in Christchurch.
The small-boat events will add spice to the regatta that has
attracted record entries.
Forty clubs and schools will be competing at the event that
has attracted 1163 rowers to Twizel for the weekend. This is
a 20% increase on the 943 oarsmen who competed last year and
beats the record 1015 rowers that competed two years ago.
There are 1038 crews competing at the regatta compared with
1002 in Twizel two years ago.
The talented Otago pair of Zoe McBride and Hannah Duggan will
dominate the double sculls in their own age group and will be
competitive in the open women's events.
McBride (16) has been the outstanding young female rower to
emerge from the province over the last decade. She won a
silver medal in the quadruple sculls at the world junior
championships at Bled last year.
A dominant double sculls in regattas this year has been the
Otago combination of Eachann Bruce and Jack O'Leary who will
be competing in the club double sculls.
Bruce started his rowing with the Wanaka club but has
switched to Otago this season, to team up with O'Leary who
won a silver medal in the boys under-16 single sculls at the
Maadi Cup last season.
Wanaka, one of the new clubs in Otago over the last decade,
has made its mark in South Island regattas this season. A
newcomer from the club this year has been Anna Watson-Taylor
who will compete in the under-18 and club single sculls this
weekend.
Other crews to watch from the Wanaka club are Riley Bruce and
Jack Porter in the under-15 double sculls and Jarrod Wellman
and Nicholas Jackson in the under-19 pair.
In the club double sculls the Otago University pair of Nicola
Shanks and Caitlin Buist have the potential to win a South
Island title. They are both competing in the single sculls as
well. Shanks is the younger sister of world champion cyclist
Alison Shanks.
One of the most talented crews is the North End under-16
quadruple sculls of Maggie Burns, Eliza Adams, Tessa Read,
Julia Landels and cox Jess Taylor that won the event at the
Otago championships.
Burns, Adams and Read were in the St Hilda's crew that won
the under-15 quadruple sculls gold medal at the Maadi Cup
last year. Other crews to watch are: Dunstan under-15 and
under-16 double sculls of Eirlys Bond and Ella Galletly,
coach Fred Strachan's under-17 boys eight, the North End
novice double sculls of Ryan Wilson and Sam Munro and the
Port Chalmers-United masters women Imogen Coxhead and Robyn
Cameron.
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