Rotorua Rowing Club

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

PHOTO; Julia Edward- SUPPLIED by RICHARD GEE ROWING NZ
Twizel ROWING semi final day

Update for the NZ Rowing Champs 16-19 feb; Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel.

Ann Woolliams; Media Liaison RRC; “There is a fantastic race coming up with the Lightweight Women’s Single Sculls. There will be no confusion by tomorrow as to who are the ‘most likely’ scullers to take to London in the crew for the Olympic Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls . The A Final is one race with one winning sculler in one skiff . This makes it easy to differentiate between the women. The likelihood is, Rowing New Zealand will be making much of this race, in their determination of who will be their first choice for placement into the Olympic Lightweight Double scull boat for next year. Rotorua’s Julia Edward has the spirit to take a seat. She has a steely determination and makes no secret of the fact she is never happy to have any other sculler attempt to take her lead. She is fast out of the start and has a formidable ‘never say die ‘ attitude, which has her in the medals frequently.With the weather perfect today and the semi finals as near to an equal playing field as can be, what we can see is that Julia Edward is capable of the time needed; with her finish of 8:05:71. She obviously needed to keep ahead of her competitor in 2^nd place and the 4 second gap would have her on top of her stroke. Let’s hope Edward has a little extra in the tank for the big race tomorrow. Lucky Strack won her semi final in 8:01:41 and was not being pushed from behind by Ayling who closed 2^nd in a time of 8:12:49. Although Ayling had the luxury of saving some energy by needing only to keep ahead of her competition in 3^rd and they were back 6 seconds behind her – enough to keep her on her toes. My money is on Julia Edward and her double sculling partner Lucy Strack coming in top 2 places followed closely by Louise Ayling. “

RESULTS 17/2/11 –

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS -SEMIFINAL 1

1 Southern RPC 1 lucy strack 8:01.41

2 Central RPC 1 louise ayling 8:12.49

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT SINGLE SCULLS

SEMIFINAL 2

1 Waikato RPC 1 julia edward 8:05.71

From Richard Gee [rowingnz.com] “Rowing's lightweight women stole the limelight today at the 2011 BankLink New Zealand Rowing Championships with all of the top athletes making it through to what should be an exceptional final on Friday morning.In a pair of semi finals that demonstrated just how strong this class of rowing is in New Zealand, world silver medallist Louise Ayling, lightweight single scull national title holder Lucy Strack, Waikato's Julia Edward and Alyce Pulford, all made it through to the final. The lightweight double scull for women is an Olympic event and Rowing NZ has one boat and 2 places in it. There will be no single scull for lightweights , the race for a seat in the boat for 2012 is really beginning to gather some pace. The entire field in the final is covered by just eight seconds on the ergometer test, all of the girls are young and all are about the same weight and size. All have international experience too."It's really close and that's great for the athletes," said Ayling. "In fact it's so close that genuinely anyone of us could win it with the right row."This new young group of women are bursting with potential. Long term, that can only be good for Olympic prospects. The girls are representing their clubs and not racing with their usual partners in the light double sculls event.Therefore emphasis has fallen on the single scull event. "Everyone in that field is dangerous," added Strack, who took out the first semi final before watching her Karapiro crew mate ; Rotorua’s Julia Edward win the second semi. The final takes place on Friday at 9.30am and should be a fantastic curtain raiser for a Pete Taylor and Duncan Grant battle in the men's event.

Elsewhere at the regatta Hyde and Wilson of Rotorua won a tight race in the women's club double scull against Hawkes Bay to secure one of the favoured lanes in the final. They will be joined by Petone 1, North Shore 2, Avon 1 and Timaru 1.

Thu 17/02/2011 11:21 a.m. “Hi Ann-Julia is straight thru to the finals with the u21 2x with Emily Discombe and ltwt 2x with Alyce Pulford.She has just raced her semi in the ltwt 1x and won her semi. Lucy wins her semi in LTWT 1X also. The weather is perfect. “Sue (Mum)

Coach for the squad of Rotorua and Bay of Plenty Academy rowers ; Rob Francis; BAY OF PLENTY ROWING ASSOC ‘COACH OF THE YEAR 2010’-

“ Weather beautiful, flat calm every day Rowers tired but have the afternoon off to recoup, but pumped for tomorrow”

Semi finals over for the day we’re going to the A finals….

WOMEN'S CLUB DOUBLE SCULL

Claudia Hyde (Rotorua)& Tosca Wilson(Rotorua)

MEN’S SENIOR COXLESS QUAD SCULLS

Sean Watts, Nigel van den Akker(Rotorua), Riordan Morrell (Rotorua)& Steven Blackwell

MEN’S SENIOR DOUBLE SCULLS

Nigel van den Akker (Rotorua)& Riordan Morrell (Rotorua)

MEN'S SENIOR COXLESS FOUR

Andrew Oliver (ex Rotorua rowing for Westend)

MEN'S SENIOR PAIR Andy's comment " we can go faster in the finals"