Hawke's Bay Rowing Club captain Ross Webb rightly described his team's performance at the national championships at Twizel at the weekend as magnificent. The team returned with the Centennial Scull for the top sculling club and a second in the Centennial Oar section for sweeping oar events. It was second to Avon in the battle for top club.
Five golds and four silvers were won by Bay rowers not in high performance (HPC) centre crews while three golds, two silvers and four bronze medals were won by elite Bay rowers competing for HPC crews. Julia Trautvetter won gold in her senior women's single final.
Coach Don McDonald also coached the senior men's eight of Russell Dodd, Max Williams, Edwin Laver, Liam, Matthew and Luke Kitchin, Pat Nicol, George Sproat and cox Peter Holt to gold. The Rohan Condon-coached senior women's coxless quad of Hannah Bailey, Laura Coventry, Ashlea Quirk and Aisha Wainwright won silver.
Olympian Emma Twigg was a convincing for gold in her premier women's single final and also won gold in her premier coxless four. Abbey Green was in the same coxless four and won bronze with an under-22 pair and under-22 quad. Adam Tripp, Richard Harrison and Giacomo Thomas all collected silver in the premier coxless quad final. Tripp and Harrison won silver in the premier pair and bronze in the premier coxless four while Tripp, Harrison and Thomas were in a bronze medal-winning premier eight.