PHOTO; Western Heights High School Girls Under 17 Coxed Quad crew wearing their Gold medals on pale blue and navy rowsuits with diagonal navy stripe. Left to right ; Stacey Tamblin, Hannah Cox, Olivia Ashby, Alice West, Cox; Phoebe Johnston and Coach Chris Pearson.

PHOTO; Western Heights High School Girls Under 17 Coxed Quad crew. Left to right; Alice West, Olivia Ashby, Hannah Cox, Stacey Tamblin, Cox; Phoebe Johnston .

PHOTO; John Paul College crew of (left to right) Conner Broughton and Andre Le Lievre sculling to the podium after their win, in the Boys Under 18 Novice Double Sculls.

Hard work by rowers earns medals…

The hard work paid off for Rotorua rowing crews at the 2013 AON North Island Rowing Secondary School Championships, last weekend at Karapiro. The school rowers gathered three Golds and one bronze medal.

“We had 42 crews entered and we made 28 A finals and 8 B finals across all the schools” said Glen Reichardt, Coach and President of Rotorua Rowing Club. Despite windy conditions which led to heats being postponed for a few hours on Friday,the Western Height High School Girls Under 17 Coxed Quad of Alice West in Stroke seat,Olivia Ashby ,Hannah Cox, Stacey Tamblin and cox; Phoebe Johnston,  placed 1^st, on Finals day , in a time 7minutes and 14 seconds.

Olivia Ashby said their plan of attack for the start was “to get out as soon as possible and race from the front.” They  were quietly confident , having won the last regatta at the KRI3 with a 12 second lead on the 2^nd place getter.  “There were a few new Whanganui crews we were a bit nervous about, as they had good heat times” said Ashby. “Our start was not too flash so we needed to have a strong middle and drive away from the other crews” Ashby added; “When we got to the last 500m we didn't want to stress out if crews started making moves on us.”

The crew were able to get a good enough lead to where they knew, they could just row a comfortable race.

“Although we were leading the whole way down the race it did take us awhile until we were confident that the other crews weren't going to be able to pick up and overtake us” Olivia said.

“We had a strong 3rd quarter that increased our lead a lot, over everyone else.”

The WHHS Girls Under 17 Quad crew is coached by Chris Pearson.

“I’m obviously very pleased and relieved at how they went and that all their hard work has paid off.” Pearson said. “They probably went into the event as favorites after their convincing wins in the two lead up regattas, but you are always a bit nervous about what is going to come out of the woodwork.”

The quad had a perfect race- getting a break on the field by the 600 meter mark and extending it throughout the race. The water conditions were not easy- with a side tail wind.

“They had a good lead and were able to row conservatively over the last 500 meters to ensure they didn't make any mistakes.” Pearson said. Their time of 7minutes 14 seconds was 10 seconds quicker than they have ever covered the 2km course.

The John Paul College Boys Under 18 Double Sculls Novice crew of Conner Broughton in stroke seat and Andre Le Lievre, won Gold. “Our plan was to get out in front during the first half of the race” said Andre Le Lievre. “It was a tough race -unfortunately St Paul's Collegiate led the race for the first for the first 750m,” said Le Lievre.

“By the final 500m we were in front”  Le Lievre added “but  I wasn't comfortable until we crossed the line.” The JPC crew is coached by Harry Ashby;

“The boys will be needing to refocus on the basics, work hard in training and look after themselves so they can go into the champs in peak condition.”

said Ashby. “All crews can find or lose a couple of lengths over this time” he added. “As we have seen, the competition is tough and a couple of lengths can be the difference between a podium finish, or not.”

The Western Heights High School Boys Under 17 four oar crew of Lewis Morrell in stroke seat, Bradley Grant , Stephen Wright, Conner Spackman, cox Keely Gage

Coached by  Glen Reichardt and  Alistair Riddle gained a second Gold medal for their school; finishing in a time of 6 minutes, 41 seconds.

“They will have some well earned ‘R and R’ before Maadi in a week.”  said Coach Reichardt ..

The Rotorua Lakes High School Girls Under 18 Double Scull Novice crew of Courtney Smith in stroke, and Cassidy Wenmoth coached by Alastair Riddle and Fiona Bassett , placed 3^rd , winning Bronze.

The 2013 AON New Zealand Secondary School Rowing Championships (Maadi) starts on the 18^th of March, at Lake Karapiro