Sensational pairs time delights Scown

GASPING: Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club's Luke Watts, James Sandston, Thomas Monaghan and Hugh Pawson won the senior men's coxless four at the Cambridge Town Cup regatta at Lake Karapiro at the weekend.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Whanganui rowing export Rebecca Scown did her Olympic hopes no harm when she and Genevieve Behrent set an unofficial women's pairs world record at Lake Karapiro at the weekend.

Scown and Behrent recorded a time of six minutes 49.06 seconds when beating world championship silver medallists Kerri Gowler and Grace Prendergast. Gowler, of course, is also from Whanganui.

Their effort beat the previous world best of Olympic champion Brits Heather Stanning and Helen Clover by 1.55s.

The time required ratification from international governing body Fisa, although Scown did not expect that to happen.

Rowing traditionally does not have world records because of the irregular nature of current flow in river sand lakes hosting regattas such as Karapiro.

"It was fast conditions at Karapiro with a nice tailwind," said Scown, a member of Whanganui's Union club, yesterday.

"I wouldn't expect it to be ratified, but it's always nice to put in a good performance. We knew we had a bit of boat speed and we had put in a lot of work through summer, so it was great to get that result."

New Zealand boats have been qualified for the Olympic in Rio and Scown in is the running for several seats, but will not know which, if any, until March.

"We have the nationals at Karapiro in a fortnight and then the national trials in March, Crews for the Olympics will be selected from the trials," Scown said.

Meanwhile, crews from the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club (of which Kerri Gowler is still a member) did well at the Cambridge Town Cup regatta at the weekend.

Luke Watts, James Sandston, Thomas Monaghan and Hugh Pawson won the men's senior coxless four A final for AWRC, while the men's eight (G Pawson, J van Bussel, B Tijsen-Cox, H Maxwell, Z Visser, T Gibson, A van Bussel, M Wright and cox E Gibbs) won the A final of the men's club coxed eight.

Luke Watts was second in the A final of the men's senior single scull and was also in the open men's coxed eight that finished runner-up.

AWRC head coach Ian Weenink said this was especially significant given the level of competition. "This is a strong regatta with a real international flavour," Weenink said yesterday.

"Individuals and the club as a whole did very well. It can be frustrating training up talented rowers only to lose them, but quite satisfying knowing we are a great feeder club."

Other notable AWRC performances included an A final second by the men's coxed four (G Pawson, J Sandston, N Luff, H Maxwell and cox E Gibbs) and an A final second in the boys U17 double sculls (B Tijsen-Cox, K Ryland).