Columba rowers attended the inaugural South Island Age-Group regatta last weekend and came away with great results.

The  inaugural South Island Age-Group Rowing Regatta was held in Twizel last weekend, much to the delight of Columba rowers.  This regatta was established to meet the needs of the rowers in case the SISS and NZSS Rowing Championships were not able to be held.  Columba sent a group of 15 athletes, which was smaller than usual and a result of the COVID infection spreading around the region. Despite this the group left Dunedin in good spirits arriving in a sunny and warm Twizel - it felt like we had left all of the COVID discussion behind.

Saturday morning we woke to fog, but it cleared off soon enough and the Under 17 four were the first race of the day.  They (Millie, Bridgette, Sara, Jendi and Isabella) had a great race to place 2nd in the heat and then 5th in the A final.  Following on from this was the Novice 8.  Kate Baskerville, who is normally the cox of this boat, had to actually row due to the lack of numbers of novices available.  What a race they had! They had a fast second half of the race to place 4th in the heat, and then 7th in the A final.

The Under 17 Quad was next. This was a crew that had not raced before - Bridgette, Millie, Sara, Jendi and Isabella.  Wow what a race they had!  They looked strong and powerful and won the heat in a great time.  The A final started well, but with a breakage to the boat halfway down the course the crew were unable to maintain their momentum and came 7th. 

Soon after, the Under 18 Novice Doubles raced - Grace Heath and Charli Sinclair.  They pushed out to a good lead and won the heat in a good time.  In the final they came up against strong opposition in Wanaka, but Columba pushed out to a lead that they never lost and won gold!  This crew has gone from strength to strength this season and seem to be ever improving.  

The Under 17 single was next. Laura Sammut had an outstanding race!  She worked her way through the crews to push out to a healthy lead to win the race comfortably.  In the final Laura once again sat middle of the field until the halfway mark where she pushed up and and competed at the front of the field, as did the others in the race.  Laura ended up placing 7th - there was 2 seconds between 3rd and 7th!

The Novice Quad was the next race. Both crews had a change of personnel. In one crew was Briar, Charli, Ciara, Grace and Isabella. Columba had a great start, to lead from the 500m and pushed out to win the heat comfortably. This was repeated on finals day - another gold to Columba. In another crew was: Olivia, Isla, Kate (who is normally coxing), Bobbi and Clair. This new combination took time to gel and had a good second half of the race to push past crews on the outside of them to place 7th.

Millie and Bridgette then combined to race the Under 17 pair.  They had a strong race in the heat, winning in a good time.  The final saw them place 4th - which wasn't what they had been aiming for and they both know they can perform faster - watch this space!

Straight out of the pair and into the Under 17 double, Millie joined up with Laura. This is a relatively new combination but they seem to gel together nicely.  They had a good middle of the race on both days to place 3rd in the heat and 5th in the final. 

Two races to go - the Novice Four and the Under 16 double. First up the Novice Four - just the one crew: Briar, Charli, Ciara, Isla and Isabella. This was a new combination but you wouldn't have known it.  They looked powerful and strong and placed second in the heat. On finals day Bobbi raced in place of Isla.  Once again this crew pushed out to be one of the leading crews in the race, but were pipped by Rangi and placed 2nd. 

The final race of the regatta for Columba was the Under 16 double of Jendi and Sara. This combination placed third in their heat and were unlucky not to make the A final. However, this did not deter them. They placed third in the B final with a time that was significantly quicker than their heat time and would have seen them competing for the top spots in the A final.

Overall a very successful regatta once again, despite being short on numbers in both our crews and our coaching staff.  The team should be very proud of their efforts and for remaining on task when there are so many distractions around them at the moment. 

The next regatta for this group is the South Island Secondary School Rowing Championship in Twizel on 11-13 March.  All the best!  (Thanks to Sharon Bennett for her fabulous photos!)