RIO-BOUND: Ex-pat Whanganui rower Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent won silver in the women's pair at the World Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland.PHOTO/SUPPLIED
RIO-BOUND: Ex-pat Whanganui rower Rebecca Scown and Genevieve Behrent won silver in the women's pair at the World Cup II in Lucerne, Switzerland.PHOTO/SUPPLIED
THREE Whanganui rowers will fill four seats in New Zealand boats qualified for the Rio Olympics this year.
Kerri Gowler and Chris Harris, still able to row in Aramoho Wanganui Rowing Club colours, and Rebecca Scown from Union, have qualified for their various disciplines, while Sarah Gray, also Aramoho, narrowlymissed out on the seat to Rio following the World Cup regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the weekend.
Scown and Genevieve Behrent won silver in the women's pair at the World Cup II in Lucerne and will take those same seats in Rio. The pair then took their place in the NZ women's eight, which won bronze in a tight final behind Olympic favourites United States and runners-up Great Britain. The US triumphed in 6:01.12, pipping GB by 0.83s, with the NZ boat of Scown, Behrent, Gowler, Grace Prendergast, Kelsey Bevan, Ruby Tew, Emma Dyke, Kayla Pratt and coxswain Francie Turner third in 6:04.01 for bronze.
Harris will take his Rio seat in the NZ men's double sculls alongside Robbie Manson after going down late to hot favourites boat for gold in Rio, the Croatian duo of brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic. The Kiwis led at the midway stage before the Croatians pulled away to win in 6:14.31, with the NZ duo second in 6:16.25 and Lithuania third a further 1.37s back.
Meanwhile, former AWRC members Jackie Gowler, Georgia Nugent-O'Leary and Martyn O'Leary will fly the Whanganui flag at national and international U23 level after making the New Zealand team.
