Finals and semi-finals decided at New Zealand Rowing Championships
Day two of the 2017 New Zealand Rowing Championships concluded heats and repechages across all boat classes, and decided the start lists for semi-finals and finals.
With light winds, cloudless skies and warm temperatures officials were able to complete the planned schedule of events without interruption, including the remainder of the heats abandoned yesterday due to wind.
Finals and semi-finals were decided with all repechages completed.
With the pressure on to make finals there was some tight racing across all categories.
The women’s club pair saw Wellington and North End jostling for second place behind of Lucy McCrostie and Harriet Dennison of Wakatipu Rowing Club. A surge from Wellington saw them secure second, with all three progressing to the final along with Otago, Porirua and Whakatane who claimed the top three places in their repechage.
The men’s club single scull fielded the largest number of athletes with eight repechages needed to decide semi-finals. Cameron Elliott (North Shore Rowing Club) powered to victory in his repechage crossing the line twenty seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Josh Rodger of Canterbury Rowing Club and claiming his place in the semi-final.
Alice Grave (Auckland RPC) showed her dominance in the women’s under 20 single sculls repechage, crossing the line with an impressive clear water advantage over Juliette Alm-Lequeux (Central RPC) and Maria Markovich (Auckland RPC). They will progress to the A final along with Grace Shaw (Southern RPC), Ruby Willis (Petone Rowing Club) and Michaela Townshend also of Southern RPC.
Three tickets to the final were up for grabs in each of the two repechages of the men’s senior single sculls. These were claimed by Lawson Morris-Whyte (Cure Boating Club), Ben Watkinson (West End RC), Ari Palsson (Whakatane RC), Wade Puklowski (Nelson RC), Ben Norling (Waikato RC) and Luke Watts of Aramaho Wanganui RC.
The final events of the day saw the big boats out on the water with the men’s and women’s premier coxed eights taking to the water to race for lanes. With a stiff cross-headwind blowing Southern RPC took the win in a time of 6:55.52 ahead of Central RPC in second and Auckland RPC in third in the women’s coxed eight. Waikato RPC took line honours in the men’s premier coxed eight with Central RPC, Auckland RPC and Southern RPC following.
Racing continues into day three tomorrow with semi-finals and finals.
Entrants, schedule and live results can be found at rowit.co.nz