PHOTO Natalie Hill and Olivia Ashby

PHOTO Natalie Hill by Coach Chris Pearson

Rowing: Hill remains in medal contention                                                    

PHILIP MACALISTER | Friday, March 30, 2012 11:10

Top junior rower Natalie Hill remains in medal contention for the girls under 18 single scull event at the Maadi Cup Regatta on Twizel's Lake Ruataniwha. Hill again showed her ability to put in a long hard sprint in

the final 250m to comfortably win her heat yesterday in a time of 08:20.6. She had the fifth fastest time overall, but the top rowers are tightly grouped with six rowers' finishing times within a five-second band. Top qualifier Zoe McBride, from Kavanagh College in Dunedin, is the clear favourite for this event, finishing in a time of 08:14.8, which is nearly 2sec ahead of second place.

The tough luck story of the day on the water was in the boys' single sculls. Rotorua Lakes High's Bradley Grant narrowly missed out on qualifying for a spot in the B final of the boys under 16 single sculls.In the semifinals, the top two finishers go to the A final and third and fourth placed rowers go to the B final. Grant finished fifth in his under 16 semifinal, three quarters of a second behind Sean Ducray, from Waimea College.Grant suffered from a very tough draw as he had to race his under 18 single semifinal less than an hour before his preferred under 16 event. He finished the first race in 07:57.6 and the under 16 race in 08:04.1.
A plus for the Rotorua rowers at the national event was that Rotorua Boys' High's Mania Oxenham finished fourth in his semifinal - in a time of 8:06.63 - and now races in a B final.

Rotorua crews also secured two B finals in the girls under 16 double sculls. The John Paul College crew (Olivia Ashby and Grace Eriksen) and the Western Heights High crew (Stacey Tamblin and Hannah Cox) both finished third in their heats with times of 8:06.91 and 08:14.8 respectively.
The Western Heights crew were unlucky, finishing well but missing an A final by less than one tenth of one second behind Auckland's Baradene College.