Natalie Hill is in Stroke position (at far right)

Natalie heading for the 2012 Junior Worlds

It was a misty cold day in June on Lake Karapiro and a smiling Natalie Hill has a chance at a medal at the 2012 Junior World Rowing Champs. Earlier this year,at the 2012 NZ Secondary School Rowing Champs in Twizel, Natalie came 4^th in the U18 single scull , 5^th in the U18 Double Sculls ;with fellow JPC sculler Olivia Ashby, and is a major force in young New Zealand women’s rowing.

The Junior worlds are held, this year, in  Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from the 14^th to the 19th of August.

“We only have one more month to go now. I am very excited to go to Bulgaria “ said Hill “but there's still a lot of hard work to be done yet. “

Natalie will compete in the Women’s U19 quadruple sculls and she will be in stroke position, setting the stroke, each sculler will follow.

The crew comprises of ;Natalie Hill(  John Paul College),Hannah Osborne(Te Awamutu RC, Waikato RPC),Ruby Tew (Star BC, Central RPC),Zoe McBride( Kavanagh College, Dunedin ) and is coached by John O’Connor.

Natalie is training 4-5km every morning Monday, Tuesday , Wednesday  and Friday, with a short row, weights session or Ergs session  in the afternoons. On Saturdays they row two 4km races or one 8km race and an extra row later in the morning.

“We just had winter series on the weekend of the 22nd of June where our quad had two very good races out of three. Our prognostic for the second day was the highest we have gotten so far.”