Action-packed fare as rowers give it their all on the Buffalo
THE Buffalo River was a hive of activity from early yesterday as the historic RMB Buffalo Regatta kicked off.
The morning of the first day was gifted with excellent weather and relatively calm water due to a lack of any serious wind. This would change as the day progressed.
The junior men’s U19 first sculls saw the talented Plunket twins compete in heats one and three for Hilton.
Patric Plunket gave a good push at the end of his heat to beat his Parktown counterpart for second with St Albans claiming first.
Heat two of the sculls saw a convincing win from Bishops who beat Hilton into second by a few boat lengths with Selborne third.
Heat three saw a tightly fought race between the other Plunket twin, Rory, and the St Albans third lane boat who got a warning for a false start but managed to secure the win. The St Albans first lane boat came in third.
Further excitement came in the first heat of the junior women U19 second double race when the Clarendon double, stroked by Erin Karshagen, managed to hold out St Marys who put in a major push towards the end in an attempt for the number one spot. St Andrews Girls placed third.
The wind picked up as the day progressed until around 1pm when concerns were raised over the rough conditions past the 1 000m.
Despite this most races were unchanged with the exception of the junior women U16 coxless pair race which was halved from 2 000m to 1 000m.
The junior men U19 first coxless fours provided another riveting round of races.
In heat one Bishops, stroked by John Grieve, flew across the course seemingly unfazed by the rougher weather. Behind Bishops a fierce battle between St Johns and St Benedicts for second took place with St Johns coming off on top.
In the second heat SA College School (Sacs), stroked by Matthew Nordoff, claimed a clear win with Parktown crossing the line second and Selborne following in third.
In the junior men U19 first coxed four St Benedicts clinched a convincing win over Parktown who left a similar gap between themselves and St Andrews in third place.
The second heat was much closer until there was about 100m left, at this point Jeppe pulled away from St Andrews to claim first. Rondebosch was hot on their heels coming in third.
From 3.30pm lanes one and two became too rough to row in and as a result boats scheduled for those lanes in races 77 to 83 were shifted over as lanes three, four, five and six were in use.
Event 86 was moved to tomorrow and the finals being held yesterday originally at 2 000m, but dropped to 1000m also as a consequence of the conditions.
St Marys, stroked by Caitlin Bentley, won heat one of the junior women U19 first quad race by almost 100m with St Andrews Girls in second and Clarendon third.
The second heat saw the St Andrews Girls crew cross the finish line looking fresh followed by St Stithians Girls in second and Holy Rosary in third.
The junior men’s U19 first eight heats did not disappoint.
The first heat was tightly contested and had spectators on the edge of their seats. Rondebosch, stroked by Daniel Estcourt, managed to pull ahead right in front of the finish line to clinch the win. Close behind came St Johns in second an SACS third.
Despite increasingly worse conditions the regatta continued though with the rowers giving it their all leaving no doubt that tomorrow’s finals would be highly competitive.