Aramoho Wanganui rowers prepare for another race under the watchful eye of club captain Jimmy Summerville (red shirt, centre) before the downpour on Saturday. PHOTO/BARB HAMMOND
Aramoho Wanganui rowers prepare for another race under the watchful eye of club captain Jimmy Summerville (red shirt, centre) before the downpour on Saturday. PHOTO/BARB HAMMOND
Aramoho Wanganui rowers gambled on the weather and won last weekend rather than disappoint visiting high-performance crews from Blenheim.
The Jury Cup regatta was originally scheduled to race on the Whanganui River on Saturday but officials cancelled due to pending bad weather. The forecast downpour did arrive, but a littlelater in the day.
In the meantime, the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club had other ideas.
Club stalwart Barb Hammond said the rowers had worked so hard towards the day that they just kept on rowing and racing against the Central Region high-performance visitors.
"Mark James, Central Regional manager, and his rowers from Blenheim were already in Wanganui, so the competition was on. The races were started around 7am, monitored and finished with the help of the AWRC coaching team under the watchful eye of Ian Weenink and Lance O'Brien," Hammond said yesterday.
"The last race of the day, around 2pm, consisted of five eight-oared boats, one quad and one double. What a great sight. Our club didn't want to disappoint the visitors, who had travelled all that way. Other clubs decided not to compete and, while it did rain quite heavily between 2pm and 3pm and even a bit later, we had a great day. The kids loved it."
The day was completed with a pig on a spit and hot hogget sandwiches that had already been ordered and paid for.
The next Wanganui regatta will be the AWRC championships on February 8.
