Waipa¯ rowers feeling on top of the world
Crew thrilled to win bronze in junior women’s four in Czech Republic
Waipa¯ rowers Holly Mills, Brooke Kilmister and Rebecca Leigh are still pinching themselves after making the podium at the 2018 World Rowing Junior Championships in Racice, Czech Republic.
Mills (Waikato Diocesan School for Girls) and Kilmister (St Peter’s School, Cambridge) were members of the bronze medal winning New Zealand junior women’s four that also included Kayla Baker (Nelson Rowing Club) and Grace Watson (St Paul’s Collegiate).
Mills told the Waipa¯ Post that it felt “simply amazing” standing on the podium after winning bronze.
“It was unreal. You keep repeating the thought in your head, ‘I’m third in the world’.
“I knew all of my friends and family were at home watching through the live stream.”
Mills said her crew always believed throughout their campaign that they had a chance to make the podium.
“We really started to believe that we had a real chance of coming home with a medal after completing our first race — the heat, where we posted the fastest qualifying time.”
The New Zealand women’s four had 15 crews in their event, including powerhouses USA, Italy, Romania and Australia.
By winning their heat, the Kiwis automatically advanced to the semi-final, while other crews had to contest repechages.
In the semis, Mills, Kilmister and co. raced Italy and placed second, qualifying for the final. A strong tail-wind helped them break the previous world fastest time for the event. In the other semi, the USA had also broken the record, making New Zealand the third fastest crew to ever race in the event.
“We weren’t the biggest crew, we relied on our fitness and ability to work together as a crew to get us to the podium,” said Mills.
“We had expected to get dropped at the start of the race, and claw our way back into it — which is exactly what we did.
“Half way through the race we sat third, almost level with Italy, while the USA had retained the boat length lead they gained on us from the start. With 500 metres to go we had leap-frogged Italy, however their sprint was too good for us and we finished with a bronze medal.”
Mills said crossing the line was the most amazing feeling — “mainly relief”.
“Personally, I started to cry because I was so overwhelmed with emotions. It’s not everyday you get to claim that you’re the third best in the world.”
Kilmister said it was a tough race and they did well to hold on for bronze.
“It was all or nothing in the last 500m,” she said. “We’ve been together for 10 weeks and it feels very special. We’re like sisters now.”
Rebecca Leigh was a member of the New Zealand junior women’s quad that placed third in the B Final and ninth overall, racing alongside Mollie Gibson (Ashburton College), Jaime Harris (Whanganui Collegiate) and Sophie Egnot-Johnson (Westlake Girls). They placed third in their heat, then second in the repechage behind Great Britain, sixth in the A/B semifinal and third in the B final.
“The food was so different, mainly because we didn’t have a single piece of red meat available to us the whole trip,” said Mills. “We stayed in a hotel on the outskirts of Prague, which hosted roughly 2000 guests each day. Also in the hotel were the American and Australian teams, and while our priority was to rest and not socialise, we did manage to make a few friends from abroad.”
Mills and Leigh still have another year of school left, making them eligible for the New Zealand team again next year.