While school was on break and everyone was enjoying the long hot summer, the Columba rowers were out training and racing. Their efforts were rewarded with improvements to race times and results.

In the summer holidays the Columba College rowing club attended two regattas in Twizel, the first one being Canterbury champs. Below are the results from the Canterbury champs which were very impressive for the first big regatta of the year.

12 crews in A finals, 1 crew in B final

Novice 2X - 3rd and 4th

U17 1X - 3rd in B final

U16 2X - 6th

Club 2- - 4th and 6th

Novice 8+ - 4th

Novice 4+ - 2nd

Club 4+ - 1st

U17 4+ - 2nd

U16 4+ - 4th

Novice 4X+ - 3rd

Following this regatta from Sunday to Friday we had a training camp. Twizel offered beautiful sunny weather with nice flat water. This enabled us to get the most training possible each day. The swims and bike rides after a hot day of training were a team bonding experience that brought the whole team together. The effort put into the training was outstanding which led us to our next regatta - South Island Club Champs. Columba also did very well at this event. Unfortunately the weather led to some races not being completed but we performed well in those that were. The whole team is hoping to be able to attend the South Island School and New Zealand Schools regattas later this term.

South Island Club Rowing results:

Novice 2x 1st and 8th

U17 single B final

U16 2x 9th

Club Pair 3rd

Novice 8 – 9th

U17 2x 2nd in heat

Novice 4 2nd heat

U17 4 erd

Novice Quad 3rd

Thank you to our coaches Glen Sinclair and Kaylin Wren for all of your hard work at South Islands and to Kaylin, Matt Adam and Saskia Klinkenberg for all of the effort you put into our rowing on a daily basis. Good luck to the team who are going to be racing at the NZ Rowing Championships in a week’s time.