New Zealand Masters Championships concludes at Lake Karapiro
Day two of the 2018 New Zealand Masters Rowing Championships was raced in cooler and breezier conditions than the previous day. Lake Karapiro saw 273 rowers from across New Zealand and Australia race on the 1000m course.
With a light head wind crews in the first race of the day the Women’s B 2X was comfortably won by the West End duo of Francie Lawson and Carolyn Steel. Silver and Bronze medals went to Cambridge and Mercer respectively.
In the next Women’s 2X race of the day, the Blenheim, Bay of Plenty Coast composite of Veronica Best and Trish Kamizona had a fantastic race winning the F 2X. Mercer took second with Auckland closing out the medals.
In the Men’s F 4-, the crew of Eric Verdonk, David Vallance, Garth Bradford and Tim Russell from West End had a tight tussle with Nelson and an Aramoho Whanganui Crew. This capped off a successful regatta for former NZ Rep Verdonk who had raced in seven events winning all bar one.
In the Women’s A 4X, cross harbour rivals Star and Petone were chased home by Blenheim. It was the Star women who took the gold in the end.
In one of the closest races of the weekend, the Men’s D 4X- saw the Horowhenua crew of Andrew Bealing, Bruce Tate, James Watson, Paul Gibbard sneak up in lane one to get home win ahead of the Dunstan Arm composite crew who finished second. Third and fourth were separated by 0.05 seconds, the Nelson crew was pipped on the line for the bronze over Hawke’s Bay.
Photos from the weekends racing can be seen on the Rowing NZ Facebook page.
Results are available on rowit.nz