Rotorua crews into four more A finals

Three Rotorua rowing crews have made it through to the semifinals at the Maadi Cup in Twizel.

There were 55 crews entered in the girls under 16 double on day two of the National Secondary School Championships.

Three Rotorua crews made it to the semifinals, two from John Paul College (JPC) and one from Western Heights High.

Another big result for the Rotorua contingent was in the novice under 18 boys double sculls where the Western Heights crew (Lewis Morrell and Matthew Bennett) won their repechage while the JPC crew (Taylor Boyce and Zac Swift) came second in the other repechage.

Both now go to an A Final.

The JPC crew qualified for the repechage on Monday by the narrowest of margins.

Another good result from the boys came in the under 18 novice quad event.

The Western Heights crew (Stephen Wright, Lewis Morrell, Matthew Bennett, Connor Spackman and Keely Gauge) won their race convincingly and earned an A final.

Conditions throughout yesterday were extremely difficult with racing postponed for several hours and races shortened from the standard 2km length to either 1000m or 1500m.

"It was very tough for all the crews rowing into the strong headwinds during the day," coach Chris Pearson said. "They were very testing conditions."

Three Rotorua crews also competed in the heats of the boys under 16 single event which turned into a sprint after organisers shortened the course to 1000m. Bradley Grant won his heat in a time of 04:17.0 and now progresses to a semifinal.

Late in the day, Natalie Hill and Olivia Ashby won their girls under 18 double sculls repechage and will compete in the A final on Friday morning.

After two days of racing, Rotorua crews have now qualified for a total of five A finals.