Dunstan rower through to semifinals at U19 world championships

Charlie Manser and Aidan Bennett set the tone for New Zealand on Bulgarian waters. The double sculls duo — who race for Dunstan and Marlborough Boys’ respectively — were dominant in their heat and quarterfinal to lock in a spot in the semifinals at the under-19 world championships in Plovdiv on Thursday. They built a promising lead through their heat and overtook the Polish crew at the 1200m mark and never looked back. They recorded the fastest time across all six heats in 6min 23.90sec — nearly five seconds ahead of their closest competitors — to lock in their spot in the quarterfinals. Manser and Bennett wasted little time in their quarterfinal later that day, getting ahead of the pack by the 250m mark. They charged ahead and were well clear at the 1500m mark, finishing in 6min 35.72sec, nearly three seconds ahead of second-placed Ireland, to advance through to the semifinals. Manser carved quite a name for himself as a secondary school rower at Wakatipu High School, winning double gold, and a silver, in his final year at Maadi Cup in 2025. He has been rowing for Dunstan since and continued to land on the podium at the New Zealand Championships. Eleri Clare (Cashmere) and Zara Blackie (St Cuthbert) qualified for the women’s double sculls semifinals at the world championships. Charlotte Mawston (Espom Girls’), Georgia Kendrick (Hamilton Girls’), Charlotte Gorman (Westlake Girls’) and Jess Walkinshaw (Rangi Ruru Girls’) qualified for the women’s coxless four semifinals and Charlie Field (King’s College), Sam Bird (Westlake Boys’), Alex Walters (St Bede’s) and George Langley (North Shore) are through to the men’s coxless four semifinals. All crews raced their semifinals on Friday night (New Zealand Time).