Juniors gain two bronze at champs

The men’s crews led the medal hunt for New Zealand at the world junior rowing champs that finished in Germany yesterday.

The Kiwi men’s coxed four and quad gained bronze medals in Hamburg at a regatta dominated by the hosts, who had boats in all 13 A finals and captured seven golds.

New Zealand entered six crews – giving both reserve crews a chance to taste international competition – and also picked up a sixth-place finish in the women’s quad in their other A final appearance.

The coxed four of Edwin Laver, Hugo Elworthy, William Morris-Whyte, Tom Mackintosh and coxswain Matt Wylie kept pace early in their final with Great Britain and reigning world champions Italy.

The two rival crews began to push away from the Kiwis at the midway stage of the 2000m race, with the Italians then surging into the lead and onto gold as Great Britain held out the NZ crew, coached by Bruce Jones, to gain silver.

In the men’s quad sculls event, the NZ combination of Sean Ducray, Olly Stephens, Ari Palsson and Jack O’Leary took some time to match the early pace set by the hosts and Great Britain.

However, the Kiwis soon made their way past Slovenia into third and while they never threatened the leaders, the Jones-coached crew had clear water over fourth-placed Romania at the finish as Germany won gold and GB silver. It was a second consecutive world junior champs medal in the event for O’Leary, who was part of the NZ team that won silver last year.

In the junior women’s quad final, Germany and China set a hectic pace early that proved tough for the NZ boat of Georgia Allen, Georgia Nugent O’Leary, Nadja Hyson and Samantha Voss. While they pushed the Netherlands and Romania, they had to settle for sixth spot.

Reserves Hannah Bailey and Luka Ellery rowed a superbly-timed race to win the B final of the junior women’s double sculls.

The duo worked their way from third to second before taking the lead in the last 500 metres and seeing off South Africa and Lithuania to claim seventh spot overall at the regatta.

The women’s four of Ella Pudney, Beth Ross, Jackie Gowler and Renee Olley took the lead early in their B final and led through the middle stages before Great Britain began to turn up the heat. In a tight battle for victory, Great Britain just managed to see off the Kiwis, to leave the NZ boat with a final ranking of eighth.

The previous day, men’s reserves – Phillip Wilson and Tom Clyma – finished second in the C final of the men’s double sculls to be placed 14th overall.

Gowler, Olley and O’Leary will now continue training as they prepare for the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China. Gowler and Olley will race in the women’s coxless pair while O’Leary will contest the men’s single scull from August 16-28.