Twizel ~ Lake Ruataniwha.

Last week four of our rowers Kian Wills, Conor White, Antonio Frances-Rees and Jan Kuepper competed at the Rowing Nationals in Twizel on Lake Ruataniwha.

Kian and Conor both competed in the intermediate single and double sculls. Conor made it through to the repacharges but did not quite make it through. Kian made it out of the heats and into the semi final where after a slow start he qualified for the A final placing 8th.

In their double Kian and Conor qualified for their A final after going through tough heats and a tough semi final and placed 8th.

Antonio and Jan competed in the U19 double sculls. The race was reduced to 1 km after heavy winds delayed racing for a few hours. In tough conditions and the fastest heat they finished 6th.

Jan also competed in the intermediate double sculls with club tower James Stevens. The two made it out of the heat and into the semi final where they placed 4th and qualified for the B final. After leading most of the way they lost the lead in the last 500 m of the race and placed 2nd in the B final.

Jan’s final race was in the novice quadruple sculls with boys high. The quad qualified easily through the heats with a time of 6min 59seconds clear of the second fastest qualifier. In the A final they sat in second for 1500 m. In the last 500 m the crew really wound up and passed Hawkes Bay and took out the National title.