Brott aims for lucky last

International duty: James Brott competing against Australia at Lake Karapiro last year. Picture by Steve McArthur

GISBORNE rower James Brott and his New Zealand under-21 teammates will try to stop their Australian counterparts from retaining the Rusty Robertson Trophy at Penrith next month.

Brott, who turns 20 in July, will be competing at this level for the last time. He was a member of the Kiwi crew who lost last year’s regatta between the teams.

“You always go into a race thinking you can do well and we have been training hard in camps, but the Aussies are very strong in the doubles, quads and eights,” said Brott, who is in the second year of “a four-year engineering degree that will take six years” at Waikato University.

“It’s tricky managing two timetables — study and rowing — but so far I’m managing.”

Last year he and Westlake Girls’ High School student Sophie Egnot-Johnson won gold in their mixed double sculls event both in Australia and in the return event in New Zealand.

Brott, who won two silver medals and a bronze at the North Island championships in January, will race in all three crews over three days in Australia.

He won silver in the men’s senior pairs with his Hawke’s Bay clubmate Morgan Davies, with a second silver in the men’s senior fours and bronze in the senior eights.

“We fly to Australia on June 25 and have three days’ training before the first day’s races.

“I’ll be racing with Jordon Gasson, who is from Blenheim but has transferred to Waikato, which is good as we get to train together.

“We train four or five times a week on the water, a couple of hours each session, and have two gym sessions a week.

“Training and preparations, especially the technical side of racing, are going well and we are confident but realistic.

“The Aussies will no doubt be training hard and improving, so it’s hard to say how we will do. It’s all about putting it together on the day.”

Day 2 of the regatta consists of quads racing, followed by Brott’s preferred event, the eights.

“I enjoy them all but the eights is exciting. I like the feeling of how fast they can go.”

Brott said he was disappointed with his performances when the teams met in Australia last year before the return regatta at Karapiro.

“We learned a lot from the first one and did better at Karapiro, but I’m still adapting to international racing.

“The mental aspect of racing is very important and so is strong lower-body strength.

“This is my last year as an under-21; I will move up to under-23 after this. I want to do well and help New Zealand win in Australia and at Lake Karapiro.”