The 19-year-old Otago University Rowing club member has agreed to take part in the 2020 Anzac Day Indoor Rowing Challenge.
It is a joint initiative between Rowing Australia, Rowing New Zealand and New Zealand’s double Olympic gold medallist Eric Murray to encourage rowers to commemorate the day.
The event will run from dawn to dusk and participants will row 2504m as many times as they can during the time period.
Why 2504m? Well, it signifies the date of Anzac Day.
As Murray says: "What better way for our rowing communities to acknowledge this year’s Anzac Day, and respect our current lockdown restrictions, than to row at home in honour of all those that have served and continue to serve our countries.
"The Anzacs rowed into Gallipoli, on 25 April 1915, and this Anzac Day, Australians and New Zealanders will unite at home to row indoors and honour their memory."
It is a competition. The country that logs the most lots of 2504m will deemed the champion.
Zwalue took up rowing in high school in Auckland and has continued with the sport since moving to Dunedin to attend the University of Otago.
She is looking forward to the challenge, although it seems an extreme way to relieve the boredom of lockdown.
Zwalue has not got a goal in mind in terms of how many ‘‘laps" she would like to complete. But she thinks it will take her between eight to nine minutes to complete 2504m and she plans to chip away all day at a ‘‘steady pace".
