Tonks Trophy heads to the capital

WINNING CREWS: The Tonks Small Boat Trophy was won by the Wellington mens doubles crew, Connor Burns and paul Moreno. PHOTO/Karen Earle

The coveted Tonks Small Boat Trophy heads to the capital after a men's doubles crew took top honours on the Whanganui River yesterday.

The trophy is an annual prize up for grabs to rowing crews only and was contested for during the monthly Wanganui Rowing Winter Series on a swiftly flowing river. It is, of course, named after one of Whanganui's favourite rowing sons and New Zealand elite squad coach Dick Tonks.

Normally the winter series is decided on "prognostic time" - where the best is the entry who finishes with the highest percentage of the world-record time for their boat class.

But because the Tonks Trophy is only up for grabs to rowing crews, yesterday's regatta was split into the categories - rowing, kayak and waka with winners of the latter two classes allowed bragging rights only.

The Tonks Trophy yesterday went to Star Boating Club men's double of Connor Burns and Paul Moreno who posted a prognostic percentage of 96.9 for the 10km trip.

The kayak section was won by Amie Simpson (94.98) from the Whanganui Kayak Club, while the waka class was won by a WROCC mixed 4-man crew (93.45).

A very swift tide made the first half of the race pretty quick, but it was a real slog to get back to the finish just past the Aramoho Railway Bridge.

The next event is the Whanganui River Challenge on October 30.