Day One of New Zealand Masters Championships
After a brief threat of fog this morning, racing began on time at the 2018 New Zealand Masters Championships at Lake Karapiro. Perfect conditions through the mornings racing saw some great racing amongst the 268 master’s rowers.
Rotorua’s Keith Fraser and West End’s Bryan Leyland went head to head in the men’s J – K single. J is over 80 with K for rowers 85 and over. Leyland won with Fraser in second place.
The Men’s master B 4X- saw a clear win from the Dunstan Arm, Union Canterbury, North Shore and
Griffith University Surfers Paradise composite crew followed by a fast finishing Wellington RC crew. However, the race for the bronze medal was between West End and Nelson was a great tussle with only 0.3 seconds separating the two crews.
The Men’s D 1X was another great race between these over 50 years old. The top 4 were separated by 2.5 seconds. Unions Whanganui’s Martin Bridger took the Gold in a time of 4:03, followed by Stephen Gibbon’s of Cambridge with Bronze going to Mercer’s Alan Cleaver.
The two Auckland Club’s of West End and North Shore were locked in a close battle for the win in the Women’s B 4X-. North Shore controlled the race until the last 50 metres where West End crew of Francie Lawson, Carolyn Steele, Lindsey Brown and Kim Garnham pushed through to win. 0.17 seconds separated the two crews with Wellington’s Star Boating Club taking bronze.
Dunstan Arm’s sculler Simon Smith made light work of the Men’s C single sculls with an impressive 8 seconds ahead of Griffith University Surfers Paradise’s Doug Cryer.
In one of the regatta’s larger fields, division 2 of the mixed D – F 4X- saw a fantastic race with the Mercer and Auckland composite crew winning, followed by Aramoho Whanganui’s Richard Brock, Jacs, Trevor and Steph Rush. The battle for the bronze medal was decided by only .01 seconds with Bay of Plenty Coast rolling over Hawkes Bay on the line. The first division was won by a slick looking Eastern Bays Scullers Club followed closely by a Union Canterbury composite crew.
The ideal conditions continued in the afternoon. The first race off saw an Aramoho Whanganui, Union Boat Club composite crew cruise to victory in the Women’s D 2X. The crew of Tasha Carver and Philippa Baker-Hogan looked comfortable as they took the gold over Blenheim and Mercer for silver and bronze respectively.
In the Women’s A-B 4- the 3 crews were relatively close going through the 500m mark. In the second half the two crews of West End and North Shore that duked it out earlier in the B 4X- had another crack at each other. West End again pipped the North Shore crew.
A few races later the West End and North Shore women were back at out on the 1000m course in the C 8+. This time the crew of Tonia Williams, Martha DeLong, Bronwyn McGill, Cecilia Kirk, Emilie Nebulot, Nicole Bitossi, Annabelle Ryrie, Natalee Taylor and Rebecca Caroe (cox) took revenge for their earlier losses by less than a bowball.
Racing will continue tomorrow from 8am. Photos from today can be seen on the Rowing NZ Facebook page.
Results are available on rowit.nz