Won final in borrowed boat

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A GISBORNE Rowing Club crew won the A final of a race they had never trained for . . . in a borrowed boat.

The women’s intermediate coxed octuple sculls won the final at the North Island club championships at Lake Karapiro on Sunday.

They won their heat in a time of 8 minutes 02.01 seconds on Saturday and won the final the following day in 7:50:58.

“These girls (eight rowers and a cox) had never even trained for this race,” a club member said.

“We don’t have a suitable boat, and the girls’ coaches, Alex Hyland and Lewis Green, borrowed one from the Hawke’s Bay club so they could enter.”

In the final they held off a late surge by a North Shore Rowing Club crew to win by a boat-length.

“This is the first medal in rowing for all these girls, but most of the glory properly belongs with the coaches,” the club member said.

The crew members were Phoebe Naske, Hannah Veitch, Presley Gibson, Lucy Coulston, Caitlin Bregmen, Vita Anderson, Emily Smith, Eva Mirko and cox Pippa Jones.