GOLD MINERS:Grace Prendergast (left) and Wanganui's Kerri Gowler will be aiming to go one better than silver
at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, starting on Sunday.
GOLD MINERS:Grace Prendergast (left) and Wanganui's Kerri Gowler will be aiming to go one better than silver
at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, starting on Sunday.
ROWING New Zealand aims to qualify 14 boats for the Rio Olympics and, at this early stage, four rowers with Wanganui connections are frontrunners for seats.
Kerri Gowler and Chris Harris are still listed as Aramoho-Wanganui Rowing Club members, while Rebecca Scown remains a Union Boat Club rower. Sarah Grayis now listed under the Waikato club since moving north from Wanganui several seasons ago.
New Zealand will compete in all 14 Olympic classes, as well as two international classes at the 2015 World Rowing Championships in Aiguebelette, France, starting on Sunday. A record 1300 athletes from 77 nations are due to race at the rowing calendar's biggest event of the year, held between August 30 and September 6.
Athletes will be racing for World Championship titles and also for highly sought after Olympic qualification spots, as the regatta acts as the main qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The New Zealand team topped the medal table at the 2014 world championships, winning nine medals - six gold (four Olympic classes and two international), two silvers and one bronze.
The 2014 under-23 world champion duo of Kerri Gowler (Aramoho) and Grace Prendergast (Avon) have successfully stepped up to the elite level in 2015, winning both bronze and silver at the second and third world cups respectively. The women's coxless pair has had a stellar start to the year but will be aiming to make the world championships their best performance of the season. Their toughest competition will come from the reigning Olympic champions, Great British pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. Gowler and Prendergast will also compete in the women's eight, along with Rebecca Scown (Union).
Aiming to make history by qualifying the first New Zealand women's eight for the Olympic Games, the crew has seen a big improvement between world cup regattas. In Varese, at the second world cup, they finished 5th while, in Lucerne, they produced an exciting silver medal winning performance, proving that they are genuine medal contenders for the world championships. The men's double scull of Robbie Manson (Wairau) and Chris Harris (Aramoho) will be looking to rectify their season so far, following injury earlier in the year and a mishap in Lucerne. Manson and Harris will be hunting down the world champion Croatians.
Sarah Gray is in the women's quadruple scull, along with Erin-Monique O'Brien (Petone), Lucy Spoors (Canterbury), and Georgia Perry (Cambridge).
After finishing 6th at the second world cup the women's quad came back fiercely in Lucerne and pushed the medal crews to the line, only narrowly missing out on the podium.
The Kiwis will need to keep a close eye on the fast German crew, as well as the crews from Poland, the United States and Australia.
Meanwhile, Wanganui ex-pat Dick Tonks coaches multiple world champion Mahe Drysdale, Fiona Bourke, last season's world champion double sculler and new to the single this year, and this year's women's double, Zoe Stevenson and Eve Macfarlane.
Yet another with links to the River City is men's double scull and men's lightweight double scull coach Calvin Ferguson. Ferguson came to Wanganui as a young athlete to row for Union and then Aramoho. He later also coached at Union.
