Kiddle shining in senior step up
An unexpected spell in a single scull bolstered Jackie Kiddle’s confidence at the start of her first full season of elite international rowing.
The Kiwi lightweight women’s double sculler - who will contest next week’s world champs in the US with crewmate Zoe McBride - had to begin her World Cup campaign solo when McBride was struggling with a wrist injury.
She made the most of her time alone, winning the lightweight women’s singles gold at the World Cup regatta in Poland and when McBride came back into the boat, the duo won gold in the lightweight double in Switzerland.
‘‘I was going out and training in the single but the plan was still that we were going to race the double,’’ Kiddle said of the start to the international season.
‘‘But it turned out that she couldn’t race the World Cup.
‘‘I kind of took that as a bit of an opportunity to make a bit of a stand on my own and show myself, Zoe and the rest of our boat class what I was going to bring to the double this year.
‘‘We all know what Zoe can do, but I wanted to show what I could do - so it was quite exciting. It was an awesome opportunity for me and I tried to make the most of it.’’
McBride has already established her credentials - she won gold in the lightweight women’s single at the 2015 and 2016 world champs - but Kiddle has also has her share of international success. She and McBride won the world under-23 title in 2015 before Kiddle teamed with Lucy Jonas to win silver at the same age-group level last year.
McBride said the biggest step up for her to senior level is the distances rowed in training.
‘‘The intensity and the amount of training we do is quite a lot more involved in the elite.
‘‘You learn quite a lot and you can adapt quite quickly into a really good environment here where everybody helps each other out. It hasn’t been too hard of a change, but it’s definitely been a step up. The environment that we’re in is highly competitive - we compete a lot against each other and we’re all very driven individuals. We all push each other and that came out in the World Cup tour - we feed off each other, especially Zoe and I.’’
Kiddle, 23, said the cool thing about international rowing is making a lot of friends.
‘‘Especially with lightweight rowing, because we have a weighin. So we do spend a bit of time, sitting down weighting for the weighin, talking with each other. There’s a few familiar faces this year, a few new faces - for me, the elite lightweight is a new category.
‘‘We try not to focus too much on who’s around - we make a few friends but when it comes down to crunch time it doesn’t really matter who you’re up against.’’
New Zealand has won gold at the 2014 and 2015 world champs through Julia Edward and Sophie MacKenzie, but with that duo taking a year off following a disappointing showing in Rio, Kiddle and McBride want to make the boat their own.
‘‘In any rowing, but especially in New Zealand rowing, with any opportunity you need to grab it and go. That’s what we’ve tried to do this year,’’ Kiddle said.
‘‘For us it was quite important that we are a different crew to them - we’re not coming in and filling seats as such, we want to make a stand as our own crew.
‘‘We are focused on making a new double go fast for the next three years hopefully.’’