Prior to the start of the school year, the St Bede’s Rowing Squad competed at the South Island Rowing Championships in Twizel over the weekend of 27-28 January. Unfortunately for us and the rest of the South Island rowing fraternity, the summer of Nor’westers continued and not a single race could be completed on the Saturday. Fortunately, the weather on Sunday was a completely different story and we saw some of the best conditions we had all season.

Missing out on the racing on Saturday meant that all finals for the events were scrapped and medalists were going to be determined from the fastest times across the heats. After the last race was finally completed at 4:30pm, the boys had all put in a solid display of racing, coming away with some impressive results. The work that had been put in prior to Christmas and over the holidays down at Lake Dunstan put the boys in a strong position of confidence heading towards the last two major regattas of the season, the South Island Secondary School Champs (1st-3rd March) and the New Zealand Secondary School Champs (18th-23rd March) both being held in Twizel.

Notable results from the South Island Rowing Champs:

Gold

• Under 19 Coxed Eight: Hugo van Herel, Bede Giera, Thomas Woodgate, George Kinder, Bruno Dooley, Harry Cournane, Harison Staples, Callum Moore, Liam Duff (coxswain)
• Under 19 Coxed Four: Hugo van Herel, Thomas Woodgate, George Kinder, Bede Giera, Liam Duff (coxswain)
• Under 19 Coxless Pair: Bede Giera, Hugo van Herel
• Under 17 Coxed Eight: Hugo van Herel, Bede Giera, Bruno Dooley, Harry Cournane, Quinn O’Sullivan, Alex Cowan, Lucas Corcoran, Jake O’Sullivan, Liam Duff (coxswain)
• Under 17 Coxed Four: Bruno Dooley, Harry Cournane, Jake O’Sullivan, Quinn O’Sullivan, Liam Duff (coxswain)
• Men’s Novice Coxed Eight: Ryan Gardiner, Cooper Titterton-Leckie, Brody Clemence, Carter Connolly, Alex Walters, Ashton Corcoran, Jeonghu Oh, Darragh Lynch, Matthew Casey (coxswain)
• Under 15 Coxed Eight: Ryan Gardiner, Ryan Attwood, Brody Clemence, Carter Connolly, James Franken, Alex Walters, Marc Climo, Cooper Titterton-Leckie, Luca Dredge (coxswain)

Silver

• Men’s Novice Coxed Four: Brody Clemence, Carter Connolly, Cooper Titterton-Leckie, Alex Walters, Luca Dredge (coxswain)
• Men’s Intermediate Coxed Four: Andrew Peterson, Jonty Coburn, Chris Guiney, Ashton Corcoran, Jonty Swain (coxswain)