Wanganui rowing export Harriet Austin is out to prove a point in today's Prospace Billy Webb Challenge wild card race on the Whanganui. The race, due to start at 5pm, will decide who fills the No 3 berth in the challenge's women's race, which also features New Zealand's No 1 scullerEmma Twigg and highly ranked Australian Sally Kehoe. Trying to shut out Austin will be Odette Sceats, Erin Tolhurst, Juliette Haigh and Julia Trautvetter. Austin, 21, rates Haigh as the favourite but the former Wanganui Collegiate rower needs little motivation to beat her and the other hopefuls. After a disappointing seventh in the quad at the world championships this year, Austin was dropped from the national team's summer squad. The selectors told her they weren't happy with her training and said if she wanted to regain his place she would have to start producing impressive results on the water. That means outshining other contenders for world championship spots. Austin said her axing hurt, but she's not going to go away without a fight. "It is disappointing. I was good enough to make the squad in March but six months later I'm apparently not good enough. "I could have come back to Wanganui but after discussing it with my parents, they said I should stay in the Waikato where all the top rowers are competing," she said. The winner of two redcoats at the nationals this year has already had two regattas for her Cambridge club this season and she will step up her campaign to win back the selectors' favour starting today and at the Jury Cup on the Whanganui tomorrow. She has certainly set herself a tough test of stamina over the next 24 hours. After the wild card race, she will contest four events at the Jury.
