Rowing: Strong crews regain cup

Hawke's Bay Rowing Club competitors who were first in their respective women's at the Jury Cup and Billy Webb Challenge regattas in Whanganui at the weekend. They are: Jessica Turfrey (club, left), Emma Twigg (elite), Jessica Norris (under-17) and Georgia King (under-20).

Rowing Whanganui

Hawkes Bay Rowing Club's women rowers stamped their class in regattas in Whanganui at the weekend.

On Saturday the Jury Cup was held in testing conditions before the regatta was abandoned. However, the Bay crews' strong showing saw the club regain the cup from second-placed Whanganui-Aramoho.

On Sunday, the weather gods smiled on the Billy Webb Challenge which is the country's premier long-distance sculling race.

It replicates the first professional single sculling which world champion Billy Webb historically defended on the 5km Whanganui River course in 1908.

The Bay had nine rowers in a field of 40 at the weekend, competing in men and women's elite categories, club, under-20, under-17 as well as men's over-40 and over-60 classes.

Jessica Turfrey (club), Olympian Emma Twigg (elite), Jessica Norris (under-17) and Georgia King (under-20) had a monopoly on the highest perch of the medal dais in the female classes.

Andrew Potter (2nd place men's elite), Morgan Davies (2nd place men's U17), Celine Henare-Murton (2nd place women's U17), Edin Harvey and Erin Henare-Murton (3rd and 4th, respectively, in the women's U17) were just as pivotal in boosting the club's fortunes.

It goes without saying that world and Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale prevailed in the men's elite class.