“Until we see who has entered the national pairs, it’s hard to say what our chances are, but the aim is to be on the podium.”
Brott, 18, is heading to the University of Waikato to study engineering after the nationals. He shifted to Napier to race in the eights and also got a job in a boatbuilding company to earn money for university.
Before the North Island champs, Brott and Davies joined forces for a regatta and won.
“So far we haven’t been beaten in any pairs races,” Brott said.
As well as the gold at the North Island club champs, Brott collected silver in the No.2 seat in the club eights and completed a medal trifecta with a bronze in the open class eights.
“We won every race in the pairs — the heats, the semis and the final — with clear water, about half a boat length, between us and second,” Brott said.
The club eights were next on the agenda about three hours after the pairs final.
“We were tired, but we still had time to recover. We came second in our heat so had to go into a repechage, which we won, and that put us into the semifinals, then we made the final.”
Davies said that while his teammates were happy with second, he was disappointed.
“I was hoping for another gold.”
“We were third with 500 metres (of the two-kilometre race) to go. We overtook the second-placed boat but just couldn’t catch an Auckland crew.”
Crews in the open class eights final included New Zealand Rio Olympics rowers, a national summer training team and a regional development team.
“Realistically there was no way we were going to win that final but to get third was a good result.”
