Indoor rowing: Riellys dominate champs

Dunedin's Rielly family - Deborah and Peter dominated the first South Island Special Olympics indoor rowing championships in Dunedin on Saturday.

Deborah dominated the women's division one events with wins in the 1000m (4min 53sec), 500m (2min 16sec) and 2000m (10min 20sec).

Her best performance was in the 500m, when she had a comfortable win over Hannah O'Malley (Canterbury, 2min 31.8sec) and Otago team-mate Sadie Rogers (3min 19sec).

She was also the only woman to complete the 2000m race, in a time of 10min 20sec.

Peter Rielly also performed with distinction in the longer events with a win in the men's division two 2000m in 8min 23sec and the 1000m in 4min 2sec.

But his Canterbury rival, Brent Campbell, edged ahead of him in the 500m to win by 0.2sec.

Campbell won in a time of 1min 2min 52.6sec.

Other Otago champions were: Ryan Stewart division five 500m (2min 30.3sec), Philip Lomas division three 500m (1min 58.5sec), Chris Rielly division one 500m (1min 38.2sec), Nathan Symister division five 1000m (4min 42.8sec), Philip Lomas division four 1000m (4min 21.3sec), Hugh Brown division three 2000m (8min 52.9sec).