Michael Nisbet (North End) won his second medal at the
national championships on Saturday to prove his point to
authorities after being dropped from the Southern Regional
Performance Centre this season.
Nisbet (21), a Dunedin apprentice builder, was dropped
because his ergometer score was not high enough when he was
tested at the beginning of the season.
But he proved himself where it counts by winning silver and
bronze medals at the New Zealand championships at Lake
Karapiro at the weekend.
Nisbet won bronze in the senior single sculls (7min 07.93sec)
on the first day of finals on Friday and added a silver medal
in the senior double sculls on Saturday with club-mate Robbie
Mears.
The North End pair stayed with the strong Waikato combination
until the 1000m but drifted back in the second half of the
race to finish 5.36sec behind, in 6min 52.94sec.
The Otago club combination of Thomas Stott and Sam Grant
finished fifth in the same race, in 7min 12.97sec.
The small Otago team won seven medals at the champs: four
gold, two silver and one bronze.
At Lake Ruataniwha last year, Otago rowers won 12 medals: six
gold, two silver and four bronze.
This year, all the medals were won by rowers from the North
End club.
Hamish Bond won four (three golds, one silver), Nisbet two
(silver, bronze) and Mears (silver) and Lucy Strack (gold)
one each.
Strack (20), who won the premier lightweight single sculls on
Friday, came close to a second medal on Saturday, when her
Southern RPC crew finished fourth in the women's premier
quadruple sculls in 7min 06.62sec.
The other members of the crew were Otago University rowers
Fiona Bourke and Elyse Fraser and Sarah Barnes, of Southland.
The Otago University quadruple sculls crew of Albert Hanson,
Jamie Saunders, Williams Hyndman and James Harvey also came
close, when it finished fourth in the men's club four in 6min
21.88sec.
Hyndman was fifth in the club single sculls final in 7min
45.63sec.
In other key premier events, Mahe Drysdale (Auckland RPC)
took a field of world champions apart to cruise to his sixth
national single sculls title.
The four-time world champion started quickly in a field that
included fellow world champions Peter Taylor (Auckland),
Marcel Hacker (Germany) and Joseph Sullivan (Central RPC).
Former Invercargill rower Nathan Cohen (Southern RPC) and
Taylor followed Drysdale out, and it looked to be all about
those three until Drysdale pulled away in the third 500m and
Hacker rowed into contention.
Hacker got past Taylor and was closing on Cohen, who produced
a good performance to win the silver medal.
Emma Twigg (Auckland) led the women's single sculls from the
start to win from Odette Sceats (Waikato RPC) and former
Otago rower Fiona Paterson (Central RPC) in 7min 47.90sec.
One of the best races of the day came in the Boss Rooster.
Dane Boswell, in the stroke seat, led a huge push by Wairau,
of Blenheim, to pass Waikato in the last 100m.
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