SHE JUST wanted to keep her hand on the oar while visiting her dad, but Wanganui rower Liberty Bracegirdle found herself with a lot of gold to declare at customs when she arrived back from Australia.
The 15-year-old member of the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club won four gold medals inquad and doubles racing at the Murray Rowing Association Regatta on January 10 and 11, in Albury, New South Wales.
Bracegirdle was representing the Corowa Rowing Club at the regatta on Lake Moodemere, which involved clubs from NSW and nearby Victoria.
On a previous trip to her father, Bracegirdle had visited Corowa RC on an open day, and she was invited to join them when she returned.
"I wanted to keep up my training, while I was over there," she said. "They said, 'we've got a regatta coming up' ... and I got the stroke.
"I went over just after Christmas, until the 10-11th, home on 13th, so trained for two weeks with them."
Despite this limited preparation time with her teammates before the major sprint regatta, Bracegirdle added the spark as they won gold in her grade for the quad and doubles over 800m on the Saturday, then backed up with two more golds in those boats in the 500m races on the Sunday. They led throughout, winning both their heats and then the finals.
The teenager also won a silver competing in the fours.
Bracegirdle felt some pressure to perform against the Aussies, given the reputation of New Zealand rowers.
"The racing here is harder because it's 2km [distance] and Kiwi rowers are so good, so I wasn't expecting it to be 'hard' hard, but I tried. I didn't want to let New Zealand down."
Her success across the ditch will be a big boost of confidence for the teenager, heading into the Wanganui championships next weekend.
