Rowing: Strack included in NZ under-21 team

Lucy Strack (North End) has been named in the New Zealand Youth Cup Under-21 rowing team to compete for the Rusty Robertson Trophy on the Penrith Olympic Course in Sydney next week.

This regatta is raced between the Australian states and New Zealand in teams of 10 men and 10 women (an eight, cox and reserve).

Strack (19), who is at a training camp at Lake Karapiro, will row in the lightweight double sculls, quadruple sculls and the eight.

New Zealand has dominated the event and has won the trophy for the past four years.

Strack was a member of the Southern Regional Performance Centre crew that won a bronze medal in the women's premier lightweight double sculls at the New Zealand championships at Lake Ruataniwha last February.

She studied art at Canterbury University last year and has been training with the New Zealand elite crews at Lake Karapiro since the national championships.

Strack started rowing when she was a pupil at St Hilda's Collegiate and made a significant advance in her her career when she finished runner-up in the senior girls single sculls at the Maadi Cup regatta at Lake Karapiro two years ago.

She was then selected for the New Zealand Youth Cup team that won the Rusty Robertson Trophy at the Nagambie Lakes in Victoria.

One of the big influences on her career was Royce Wilson, who coached her at that time, when she was Dunedin-based.

Wilson stepped up Strack's workload two years ago and she is doing four times the training she had done in the past.

A turning point for Strack came in the Maadi Cup race in 2007 in which she led until the last 20 strokes.

She ended up second because she was tense throughout the race.

It was a valuable lesson and she has now learned to remain calm under pressure in a race.

Strack has the 2012 Olympic Games firmly in her sights and is training up to five hours a day at Lake Karapiro to achieve her goal.

She is also a talented artist and likes to swap an oar for a paint brush.

It helps her relax and is a good break from the hard training grind of rowing.

New Zealand Under-21 Youth Cup Team: Michael Arms, Gerald Campbell, Malone Blaike, David Mabbott, Abbe Banks, Kate MacLeod, Kirsty Thompson, Natalie Stuart, Lucy Strack, Julia Edward, Armin Svoboda,Toby Earp Culiffe-Steel, Beatrix Heaphy-Hall, Rebbecca Boyes, Karl Manson, Samuel Wells. Reserves: Chelsea Martin, Matthew Lobb. Coxwains to be announced. Manager, Nicola Daniels. Coaches, AJ Harper, Janey Wackrow.