"And your biggest success - Michael Laws moved to Timaru."
It would be a big night for the Gowlers as senior and Under 23 world champion rower Kerri accepted the International Junior Sportsperson award, making sure to thank beaming parents Brent and Dianne.
"You've helped me through the ups and downs, so thank you."
Their table top was rapidly filling up as younger sister Jackie had already gone up with Georgia Nugent-O'Leary to accept the Junior Team award.
"Very shocked to get it," said O'Leary, in a theme of the evening.
"Not to speak for Jackie, but I'd like to thank mum and dad. Bringing us up and what not."
Minutes after getting her first gong, Kerri Gowler was back to accept the Supreme award as the pick of all the winners.
"I've had a really awesome year and this just adds to it."
Afterwards, proud dad Brent Gowler laughed it was nice to be acknowledged by his girls, "for the first time in a very long time", while wife Dianne could see all their sacrifices in time, travel and costs were paying off.
"We've said in our old age, they have to look after us," she said.
Both being products of Nga Tawa Diocesan School, Dianne Gowler said the Marton community had taken a lot of pride in the sisters success.
"We're still living in a dream world, but other people, they are more excited for us.
"Just fully supportive."
Although there is an age difference of a few years, the siblings came from a somewhat competitive family environment of rowing, netball, and horse riding.
For Kerri Gowler, her ascension to being senior world championship had come as a big surprise.
"It's obviously panned out a lot different.
"We had the [New Zealand] trials in March ... so our only focus was Italy."
After qualifying for the Under 23 world champs in Varese, Gowler and pairs partner Grace Prendergast were given a warmup at the senior World Cup regatta in Lucerne, where they shocked everyone by winning silver, including beating the Kiwi elite pair in Wanganui's Rebecca Scown and Louise Trappitt.
They then dominated the U23 champs and were minted into a fours crew for the senior World Championships in Amsterdam, where gold was also secured.
"If you asked me if my year was going to pan out like this in January, it would not be that way at all," Kerri Gowler said.
Jackie Gowler and Nugent-O'Leary experienced a similar rollercoaster as they went from club meets and national secondary schools events to competing in Germany, while Gowler also went to China.
"It was a huge shock to the system, going to the juniors and worlds all at once. It was a whole new level," she said.
There was no time to take stock as both sisters had to depart for their next training camps for the 2014-15 season - Kerri in Cambridge, Jackie in Blenheim.
Having followed her sister into the sport, Jackie Gowler could one day foresee herself becoming a senior New Zealand team-mate, with Nugent O'Leary feeling the same.
