Hero photograph
Gold medal winners Thomas Ryan and Ben Mason
 
Photo by Photo courtesy of Sharron Bennett

Gold at National Rowing Championships

Kirsty Dunhill —

Last week the NZ National Rowing Championships were held at Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel.

Two of our senior rowing squad, Ben Mason and Thomas Ryan, competed for Otago Boys' in three events. 

They made A finals in all their races and last Friday evening were crowned NZ National Champions in the Men's Club Double Sculls. 

We believe history has been made for Otago Boys' High School with this being the first National Rowing title ever won at the NZ Championships. So impressive was their win that Mahe Drysdale met the crew and spent time with them prior to the medal ceremony. The boys had to deal with a 9 hour wind delay and half hour updates on race times. They handled the pressure well and remained focused. 

Ben and Thomas now join the rest of the Maadi Cup squad for the last 4 weeks of training before heading up to Cambridge in March to race at the Maadi Cup.