Over the summer holidays our rowing girls have been training hard and competing at many regattas and week long training camps. We kicked off the season with our first Twizel regatta of the season - Meridian Otago Championships.

Unfortunately the regatta was called off due to high winds. After the regatta we stayed in Twizel for the remainder of the week for a training camp. During the training camp we trained three times per day, Haylee and Rebecca started training in a pair which they are going well in! We also played a lot of Uno.

After our Christmas break we returned to Twizel for our second training camp/ first regatta of the new year - Canterbury Champs. During the training camp we trained as hard as we could for the entirety of the week, we also tried out some new crews including the whole crew eight, Novice single and U16 single. We saw all of our hard work paid off in the regatta with the Rachel and Melissa making B final in the Club double (beating university crews!), The Novice coxed four (Pippa, Lucy, Aaliyah, Hannah and Amy (cox)) making the B final and the same girls in the Novice coxed quad win their heat by 17 seconds! The regatta was called off before we got to race,the finals but we were all still incredibly proud of our results.

South Island Club Regatta was the next, the conditions weren’t the best, the high winds once again calling the regatta off early, however, we still were able to compete in a few races including the U16 double, U17 singles and the Novice four and quad. The Novice quad then went on to win the silver medal.

We then had the term one regatta where we were up against our fellow Dunedin rowers who proved to be some tough competition. The U16 quad came 2nd to St Hildas by less than a second, the Novice quads continued to do well and our U17 pair had their first ever race against the doubles and did extremely well! We finished the day with our whole crew eight, we were up against Otago Boys, Kings High School, Columba College and St Hildas. Spirits were high even though the water wasn’t cooperating and we stayed with St Hildas crew for the entirety of the race.

The crew has a busy few weeks ahead, this weekend our girls will be competing at the Lake Hood regatta for the first time in 4 years! On the 4th of March we have the Head of Harbour regatta (feel free to come down and support our girls as well as watch some intense racing) and on the 11th of March we have our final regatta for the season South Island Secondary Schools Championships at Lake Ruataniwha.

Next weekend (Sunday 5  March), we will be holding an open day for anyone who is interested in joining rowing next season, we will be having a tour around the club, go out on the water, have a go on the ergs, have some coffee and snacks as well as have people there to answer any questions. We will have the rowers, coach and the parents there to fully explain what is involved. If you would like anymore information please email Amy Hinch (13051@otagogirls.school.nz)

On behalf of the OGHS Rowing girls we would like to thank our ‘Dad Squad’, parents and our Coach - Craig De’blecourt for their constant support and encouragement for our crew, we are extremely grateful for all that you do for us! Thank You!