“At the 1750m mark- we went  all out till the end…”

John Paul College student Natalie Hill won the Bronze medal in the Women’s Junior quad at the 2012 World Junior Rowing Championships in Bulgaria. Attending this event were almost 1,000 athletes from 57 countries. Natalie’s Women’s quad scull event had 16 international crews competing, including Australia, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Romania, Ukraine and the USA.

“Sitting in the starting blocks with the official calling out the names of all the countries, was building up the butterflies in our stomach” said Natalie.

The kiwi women’s quadruple scull crew of Hill, Hannah Osborne (Te Awamutu RC, Waikato RPC),Ruby Tew (Star BC, Central RPC),Zoe McBride( Kavanagh College, Dunedin), coached by John O’Connor , are happy with their Bronze medals. The race went well, Natalie and her crew came out of the blocks about 3rd or 4th and did three sets of 10 strokes ‘on’ ( long, powerful strokes) just after the start.

“Through the middle we did seven ‘on’s’ and at the 1km we did the 30 strokes again. At five hundred to go (1500m mark) we do a build up of pressure,” said Hill “ then at the 1750m mark- we went  all out till the end.“

A Bronze medal at an international level this early is an impressive achievement in her rowing career.

“It was amazing to stand the podium with our new bronze medals, just to know that we are now 3rd in the world for the women’s quad under 19”.

Because of her achievement she gains an automatic entry into the Waikato Regional Performance Centre, for the 2012-2013 rowing season.

The Gold medal went to 2011 Bronze medallists; Romania and the Silver to the USA.