Whanganui crews medal at Masters rowing

MASTERCRAFTSMAN: Union Boat Club rower Pat Carroll returned home with bronze from the D grade single scull at the Bankstream New Zealand Masters regatta on Lake Karapiro.

Whanganui rowing crews earned their stripes at the Bankstream New Zealand Masters' Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro at the weekend.

Conditions both days were miserable with driving rain, strong head winds and rough water making life difficult.

In fact, it prompted one particularly poignant comment on facebook: "no wonder Rio conditions didn't worry the Kiwis".

This didn't faze crews from the Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club and the Union Boat Club who travelled up.

Nine UBC masters and 16 from AWRC braved the elements to come away a bunch of medals.

AWRC rowers won 8 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze, while the UBC team came home with 2 gold, 8 silver and a bronze.

Meanwhile, UBC athletes Philippa Baker-Hogan and Jennie Evans rowed in composite crews with members of Taupo, Cambridge and AWRC clubs to achieve a win in the women's D double scull and second placings in the women's D quad scull, women's C four, women's C quadruple scull and mixed D-F eight.

Union club captain Bon Evans said the ultimate aim was to use the regatta as a build-up for the World Masters Games rowing events to be held at the same venue in April next year.

Racing for the more than 480 competitors was held on the new Karapiro 1000-metre course that has been developed for the World event.

Jacs Rush from AWRC said the regatta was also a build-up for the international event for their athletes. International rowers were also competing with the same intention.

Trevor Rush was the top medal winner for AWRC bringing home 4 gold and 3 silver medals. Also with 4 gold were Allan Luff and Bruce Osborne who are returning to regular training in advance of the World event. Others among the AWRC top medal winners were Richard Brock with 3 gold and 3 silver, Garth Hammond and Des Lock, 3 gold and 1 bronze and Tony Upchurch who bagged a total of 7 medals.

The UBC squad of Jennie Evans, Liz Nielsen, Philippa Baker-Hogan, Bob Evans, Grant Ryder, Martin Bridger, Pat Carroll, Peer Nielsen and Rod Calder were satisfied with their results and looked forward to continuing improvement through to the World regatta.