Rowing: Strong regatta showing for young Whanganui Rowing Association squad

The Whanganui Rowing Association squad at Lake Karāpiro.

A small Whanganui Rowing Association squad finished third in the Graeme Moran Points Trophy competition at the North Island Inter Provincial Regatta.

Twenty-one rowers from Whanganui Collegiate School (seven), Aramoho Whanganui (11), and Clifton (three) represented Whanganui at the Lake Karāpiro regatta. The squad were primarily under 20 but the attendance of Messina Su’a and Maddison Neale, who are both at Otago University, enabled the team to enter most of the women’s open events.

All six North Island provinces attended the event and provided strong competition which required divisions to accommodate the number of entries, particularly in the Under-20 classification events.

Jake Newton, who recently returned from Genoa where he and Will Herd represented New Zealand in the World Rowing Beach Sprints, was again to the fore, winning his division of the Under-20 single in the fastest time of the three divisions.

He combined with Eli Kuehne to push a much senior Auckland combination to take second place by less than half a second in the men’s open double in an exciting race and the combination later comprehensively won their division of the Under-20 double.

Whanganui took out the second division of the same event with the energetic Nicky Maxim combining with Clayton Potts from the Clifton Club.

The men’s Under-20 quad sculls provided one of the tightest finishes of the day with Maxim and Potts, combined with Joshua Cordini and Herd, finishing behind Waikato and Bay of Plenty, with a margin of 1.17 seconds separating them from first place.

Cordini, an exchange student from Germany at Whanganui High School, has quickly established himself as a competent oarsman.

Promising Collegiate scullers Ottalie Morrah and Olive Strahan took out the women’s Under-20 pair, defeating a strong Waikato crew by four seconds.

Robin van Dijk and Bea Douglas, girls’ Under-18 gold medallists at the North Island Secondary School Regatta earlier this year, again demonstrated their talents in winning the Under-20 double sculls by four seconds in a great tussle with Bay of Plenty.

Twenty-one crews contested a 5km race, with Maxim, Potts, Herd and Cordini taking second place, based on prognostics, in an Under-20 quad scull.

Whanganui coach Axel Dickinson praised the performance of the women’s eight in the event. The crew comprised Franca Morrah, Ottalie Morrah, Olive Strahan, Mila Graham, Jesse Pulford, Maddison Neale, Messina Su’a and Eva van der Zouwe. They were expertly coxed by Hunter Rowlands to finish seventh, one place behind Kuehne and Newton, who made their third appearance over the weekend as a double sculls combination.

Whanganui, which had one of the smallest and youngest squads competing, finished third in the Graeme Moran Points Trophy.

Final points: Waikato 54, Auckland 50, Whanganui 31, Bay of Plenty 30, Wellington 17, East Coast 12.