By K O'Connell | Posted: Sunday March 3, 2024
Despite some windy and choppy conditions Timaru Boys’ High School rowers managed to secure an impressive five titles at the South Island Secondary School regatta at Lake Ruataniwha in the first weekend of March.
The team showed good all round strength winning medals in both sweeping and sculling, across all grades from novice to seniors, getting into 17 A finals and three B finals, and securing ten medals in total.
An unfortunate injury meant Luke Tomkins wasn’t able to complete all his races but Riley Dann was able to step up and perform extremely well with the Boys Under 18 8, and Ben Allan subbed in to finish what Luke started in the Under 17 Coxed Quad Sculls.
It's been a huge effort by the coaches, the team and parents getting the boys to water to be able to train this season, with Saltwater Creek and Lake Opuha out of action for the second half of it.
The boys have met the challenge head-on and proved their strength as a team not only in all of their outstanding results but in their support of the crews on the water all weekend - possibly taking the title as the loudest crew lakeside.
Manager Simon O’Sullivan commented that it takes the hard work of the entire squad and parents to get results like this but our secret weapon is our coaching team made up of Liam Parker, Jamie Harrison and head coach Brian Smith. Also a huge thank you to Mr Lowe, Mr Miller and Mr Thorpe for taking time out of your weekend to support the boys, we all appreciated it.
With the big South Island regatta completed the focus is on continuing their dominance in the national secondary school championships -the Maadi Cup in two week’s time. The entire school community are welcome to join in the action at the parents and supporters tent from 18 – 23 March.
Gold/South Island champions:
Josh Bartlett – Under 18 single sculls
Ben Allan – Under 17 single sculls
Payo O’Sullivan, Ben Allan, Josh Bartlett, Blake Parker + Ned Brown – under 18 coxed quad sculls
Tim Bartlett, Cooper Gordon, Harry Shearer, Baxter Hopa-Parke + Thomas Crawford – Under 15 coxed quad sculls
Ben Allan, Payo O’Sullivan, Levi Heffernan, Mac Brown + Ned Brown – Under 17 coxed four
Silver:
George Talbot and Tim Bartlett – Under 15 double sculls
Mac Brown and Luke Tomkins – Under 17 double sculls
George Talbot, Luc Todd, Reuben Brown, Cooper Gordon, + Toby Connor – Under 18 novice coxed quad sculls
Bronze:
Blake Parker - Under 18 single sculls
George Talbot, Cooper Gordon, Reuben Brown, Harry Shearer + Toby Connor – Under 18 novice coxed four
You can see all the results here: https://rowit.nz/siss2024/results?en=3
