Rowing: Dedicated youngsters reap rewards

Jackie Gowler (left) and Georgia Nugent-O'Leary's performances at the recent Maadi Cup, overseen by coach Ian Weenick, have propelled them to higher honours. Photo/File

Hard work, dedication and untapped talent have gained two Wanganui rowers national status and a place in line to springboard to even higher honours.

Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club rowers Jackie Gowler and Georgia Nugent-O'Leary have been named in the world junior squad - Gowler in the junior women's coxless four and Nugent-O'Leary in the junior women's quad scull. Gowler has also been selected to row in the pair at the Youth Olympics.

Aramaho Wanganui, Wanganui High School and Nga Tawa head coach Ian Weenick said he was delighted the girls continued to achieve such honours given they did not leave the region and remained with their local crews and club.

He said they stayed in Wanganui central for Christmas, renting a house, so that they could train right through the holiday break.

Gowler confirmed she and fellow Nga Tawa rower Heather Gee-Taylor actually rented a house five minutes from town so that they could be closer to training during the holiday break.

"They've done extremely well, these two, to get to that level," Weenick said.

"They can row any boat they can skull and sweep whereas a lot of the girls are one-dimensional.

"This lets them achieve whether they are in singles, pairs, fours, eights or whatever. They train twice a day, every day, morning and night," Weenick said.

"They're just really good kids to coach physically and mentally mature."

Top New Zealand rowers such as Nathan Cohen, Hamish Bond, Joseph Sullivan and Emma Twigg all began their rowing careers at the junior level and have gone on to have successful careers as elite athletes competing and winning medals at the World Rowing Championships.

Junior rowing is an important part of the high-performance pathway for athletes who want to go on to represent New Zealand at the elite level at world cups, world championships and ultimately the Olympic Games.

"It's pretty unexpected to have been selected to compete at the Youth Olympic Games. We don't really know what to expect but we want to get a really good result," Gowler said of her selection.

"It's still sinking in and I can't really believe it. It looks like all that hard work is starting to pay off," she said.

The Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games will be held from August 16-28 and will encompass all 28 sports on the Olympic programme.

The rowing events of the second Youth Olympic Games will be held at the Xuanwu Lake Rowing-Canoeing Venue from August 17-20.

In the meantime, both rowers are spending time at home this week awaiting the call to duty.

"We leave for Germany on July 28 for the World Juniors and then on August 11 me and my pairs partner will head to China for the Youth Olympics," Gowler said.

The world junior team will assemble and train at Lake Karapiro at the Rowing New Zealand High Performance Centre for six weeks from June 8 to train as a squad, so many of the athletes will have to relocate.

As they prepare for the championships they will continue their secondary school studies at St Peter's School in Cambridge and will be accommodated at the Rob Waddell Lodge on the shores of Lake Karapiro.

The young New Zealand rowers will compete against 600 top junior athletes from 50 nations around the world at the championships.