PHOTO; NZ Men’s U23 Quad; Jeff Francis (in red) ‘pushes off‘  for a dawn training session.

Row that boat

Former John Paul College student, Jeff Francis, is training towards the Under 23 World Rowing Championships, in Lithuania in July, and he is happy training is “going really well”.

His schedule is rigorous, but he looked terrific when I called by Lake Karapiro Rowing NZ Elite Training Centre on Friday.

Rowing is all there is at the moment. Jeff is either about to go ‘on- water ‘or about to go ‘off- water’.He trains on Lake Karapiro twice a day, at least 3 times a week, in his Men’s Quad, alternating with time trials. Then he adds in, weights programmes, off- water.

Rowing NZ monitors the crew’s speed over varying distances, week by week, and prepares ‘prognostics’. These time trials tell the Rowing New Zealand coaches whether the crews are performing, according to their progress plans and nearing their projected world class race times.

The crews are on a programme which intensifies as time goes by. Once the boat and its crew are performing as a perfect rowing machine, the four scullers will be doing more speed work, all the while, making sure they stay in perfect health.