Watts key to honours bid

Lightweight Wanganui rower Luke Watts will be a key player in his Victoria University team's bid for honours at the Rowing New Zealand Universities Championships at Lake Karapiro beginning on Friday.

The competition is the most fiercely contested event on the University Rowing calendar with nine varsities competing this year. Universities from around the country compete in varying grades from completely novice to championship level in all sizes of boats from singles to eights.

The men challenge for the Hebberly Shield (which dates back to 1928) and the women for the Tamaki Cup.

The university with the most overall points claims the ashes trophy, a trophy donated by Otago University Rowing Club after its shed was burnt down in 1999.

Inside the trophy are actual ashes from the fire.

Watts, who represented New Zealand at the World University Games in Kazan, Russia, last year, will compete in the open single sculls, the doubles lightweight sculls, the open pairs and the quads over the weekend.

In Russia Watts finished second in the B final of the single sculls after a fourth in the A final. Now 21, Watts was the youngest and lightest rower at the world university championships last year and ended up eighth overall.

His father Stu Watts said his son had sustained a niggling back injury just before the nationals in January this year, but was well over that now.

While Watts had trained regularly with the Wellington Rowing Club as he continues studies at Victoria, he remains a member of the Union Rowing Club in Wanganui.

He had also rowed in his Union club colours as part of the Central Rowing Performance Centre franchise in Blenheim during the summer months.

As a lead-up to the World Universities regatta in Russia, Watts competed in the Youth Cup for under-21s at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith last July. He won gold medals in the lightweight double, heavyweight quad and eights.