Waihopai scoop five golds on first day

ROWING

Toby Pascoe In typical journalism technique, a sports article will talk about one athlete or crew for most of the story before wrapping up other results from the event.

However at the National Rowing Champs on Lake Karapiro near Cambridge, this would not be possible for the Waihopai Club.

Waihopai club rowers in the first day of the National finals won five gold medals, the same as last year’s overall tally.

To start it off was Sarah Hamilton in the women’s senior single scull and after sitting in third for most of the race, Hamilton unleashed a sprint in the last 500 metres to take the race by the neck.

Hamilton races five A-finals this weekend and could be one of the few to take a gold in each, after joining with Kristen and Katelyn Froude and Lori Comer to show Waihopai’s dominance in sweep oar rowing, winning the women’s senior coxless four.

The women jumped out after

500 metres to take several lengths of clear water by the 1000 metre mark. The result at the finish line was a Waihopai crew stroking 30, five points lower than a typical race pace, and a nine second gap back to the rest of the field.

Matt Malcolm took back his title he came third in last year but had before that for two years. The race became a two person affair with Malcolm sitting behind Matthew Glenn of the Waikato for the first part of the race before storming ahead to take the lead.

The Waihopai men’s senior four of Mark O’connor, Matt Malcolm, Ollie Behrent and Toby Pascoe had the lead from the women to follow and did not disappoint with an exciting but closer race.

The race turned out to be a two horse event with the Waikato rowing club and the pressure was on as Andrew O’connor sat in the oppositions while younger brother Mark stroked the Waihopai combination. In the last 250 metres, Waihopai was half a boat ahead before unleashing a sprint to win by a length.

Both the senior four titles are a milestone for the club with the women’s one being defended and the men’s title being regained after a year off last year.

The senior women had to wait in the pouring rain for their next race, the senior coxless quad, but this did not put a stop to their dominance or Sarah Hamilton’s quest for five national titles.

The crew of Hamilton, the Froude sisters and Lisa Owen had it tougher this time with Avon from Christchurch fighting to stay ahead of the southern crew.

The speed work under coach John O’connor paid dividends as Hamilton lifted the rate to storm home for a one second winning margin.

Hamilton will race the senior women’s pair with Kristen Froude this morning as well as the senior eight later in the day and could be celebrating her best Nationals yet by this evening.

She was positive about the first day of finals and what was to come. ‘‘I was relatively confident having done the work, I feel really good about the pair and eight, now that we have got the first three out of the way’’, said Hamilton.

Waihopai’s Jade Uru and Otago’s Hamish Bond took their fifth men’s premier pair title with another exciting race against Eric Murray and Tyson William’s from Waikato.

Murray, three time world champion with Bond in the NZ pair, didn’t drop below 40 in stroke rate the last 1000 metres, but Bond and Uru had the finish sprint to keep hold of their precious title.

Waihopai’s Tessa Young and partner from the Southern RPC Olivia Loe took silver in the women’s under-21 double behind lightweights Georgia Hammond and Sophie Mckenzie from Central RPC.

Invercargill’s Hayden Cohen and Avon’s Nathan Flannery established themselves as contenders for the NZ Under-23 team this year after winning the men’s under-21 double.

Cohen and Flannery will now look ahead to the under-21 quad today with Waihopai’s Scott Barnsdale and Avon’s Greg Brand.