Sickness is a blow but TSS rowers soldier on

A CRUEL blow on the eve of their GPS second regatta wasn’t enough to derail The Southport School’s First VIII, who had one of their crew members hospitalised on Friday night.

Mackenzie Branch came down with an infection on Friday and spent the night in hospital on an antibiotic drip, forcing a last-minute seat reshuffle on Saturday.

The crew crossed sixth in their first rotation before regaining confidence to finish second in the last race of the day, much to the delight of coach Cameron Kennedy.

“He’s one of our top rowers so we had to make a last-minute change,” he said.

“It took more than a race for the rowers to get used to that.

“It wasn’t the day we wanted but they came good after the last-minute change.”

Branch is expected to make a full recovery and be fine to race in the third regatta this Saturday.

Kennedy believes the weekend could prove a positive as TSS continue to coach flexibility and adaptability in search of their 22nd Head of the River title.

“You do train to make sure they can adjust and adapt to any crew,” he said. “You do swap around seats and personnel. There’s a lot of talk about what ifs and how we can respond if someone gets injured or is sick so in some ways, it’s good to practice that scenario now ahead of Head of the River.”

Kennedy believes a relaxed attitude was behind his crew’s sudden response, improving four places and six seconds from race one to two.

“They felt like they had nothing to lose and tried to enjoy the second race,” he said. “It’s good to see them gaining that mindset as a group and knowing they can perform in different circumstances.”