Three weeks ago I raced at the Under 19 Rowing World Championships.

This experience started 5 months ago when I was selected for the Under 19 Men's four trials. I was lucky enough to get a spot in the boat, and was up against 24 of the best Under 19 rowers from across New Zealand.

I went to a training camp at Blenheim for two weeks where we were divided into flats. My flat had two boys and four girls which was good fun. We had to be independent and sort everything out ourselves, while trying our best to keep on top of school work with the little time that we had off. The camp was two weeks of sickness and rainy days of rowing. 

From there, I was back to Dunedin for a couple days before another flight to Auckland for a further two weeks of intense training. Then it was off to Cambridge for the final three weeks. While in Cambridge, we competed against the elite rowers that had just won gold in the last Olympics. They certainly put us under the pump, but it was great training. Each day during those three weeks we had to do terrible heat training in a room heated to 39 degrees to prepare us for the hot Italian temperatures. I learnt a lot over my time training; how to be disciplined, committed, a great desire to do my very best along with a strong loyalty to the team.

After 39 hours of travelling, we arrived in Lake Pisano where we spent a couple weeks training with the New Zealand Under 23 squad. I trained beside Otago Boys' old boys Ben Mason, who was in the quad and Reuben Cook who was in the light weight double. After the two weeks of training at Lake Pisano, we headed over to Varese where we competed. On the days that we were racing, the temperature was always above 40 degrees which made us all lose a crazy amount of weight. With each row, I was losing three plus kilos.

I was happy with how we raced and the times we managed to put out. We managed to set the record for the fastest time ever rowed from a New Zealand Under 19 four at World Champs, but that was still not fast enough to get the result that we were after.

I will be forever grateful for this amazing experience I have had. Rowing with a dedicated team, all pushing to do the very best they could do, as well as meeting and making new friends amongst the other crews who came from all around the world. So many great memories that will stay with me forever.

To conclude, I’d like to thank Grayson Small for rowing with me for the last 5 successful years. Without you there I would not have got as far with rowing as I have. Those early mornings on a rough and cold Otago Harbour along with the great competitiveness between us certainly resulted in two excellent years medal wise.

A big thanks to the coaches who kept us moving along in the right direction, and finally thank you to the school for their encouragement and interest in our progress.