Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Rowing: Following in dad's footsteps

Stuart Whitaker
Bay of Plenty Times·
26 Jun, 2015 05:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Tauranga's Zoe Stevenson (right) and double sculls partner Eve McFarlane have made a winning start to their new partnership. Photo / File

Tauranga's Zoe Stevenson (right) and double sculls partner Eve McFarlane have made a winning start to their new partnership. Photo / File

Rowing legend Herb Stevenson isn't in the least bit surprised about his daughter Zoe's success in the sport.

The double sculls world champion with Fiona Bourke, this season Zoe has teamed up with a new partner, Eve MacFarlane, and has begun the year with a win at the first major event of 2015, the World Cup regatta in Italy.

"She is very competitive - she takes after her mother there. I remember her playing touch - she was very competitive," said Stevenson senior.

Herb is well aware from his own rowing days, where he was part of two world championship winning eights in the 1980s, and from years of coaching, of what it takes to reach the top in the sport. He admits to a glow of pride in what Zoe has achieved.

"Part of that is because I know what it takes to get there. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of skill and some ability as well."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Zoe's three older brothers all rowed at school.

"She started in year 10, so that was a bit later than she could have, so by then they had all had a go, but she was the only one who continued on with it further than school."

Herb coached his daughter for a brief time before her talent was recognised and she was taken into the Rowing New Zealand development system.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Zoe will stay in Europe until the world championships in France in late August and early September where a top 15 finish will ensure Olympic qualification.

"That's a pretty good prospect and short of falling out of the boat they should do that.

"Certainly that's her intention, to qualify, but that only gives New Zealand the right to put a double in (the Olympic regatta). But she will have a foot in the door. Then she'll come back to training in October, then trials in March and it all starts again."

Going into the World Cup, the new combination was something of an unknown quantity, with the task made greater by the fact that their key rivals were fielding the same crews as last year.

Discover more

Racing: New start gates in action at Kiwifruit Cup meet

19 Jun 06:46 PM

Rugby: Tight race as playoffs approach

21 Jun 08:48 PM

Duathlon: Double puts Dunster on course to Italy

22 Jun 08:16 PM

Canoe Slalom: NZ paddlers confident after World Cup

23 Jun 07:47 PM

As preparation, they have trained alongside Olympic and multiple-world champion Mahe Drysdale on Lake Karapiro.

In Italy, the New Zealand pair were last at the halfway point, although it was a tightly contested race from the start.

In the third 500m, Australian's Sally Kehoe and Olympia Aldersey were just half a boat length in front, with the other five crews going stroke for stroke in a line behind them. Americans Meghan O'Leary and Ellen Tomek then took charge into the final phase of the race, as the Australians faded. But Stevenson and MacFarlane stormed home to pip the US pair on the line.

After the race, Zoe said that for the last 400m they were putting in as much as they could.

"I was really impressed with us - it's our first regatta together and I felt like we didn't fall apart at all. It was just putting more in and putting more in each stroke and concentrating on getting as much boat speed as we could to give ourselves a chance."

Another Tauranga-produced rower, Curtis Rapley, was a member of the gold winning men's lightweight four in Italy with James Lassche, Alistair Bond and James Hunter.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The New Zealanders held on to half a boat length lead for gold heading for home in a time of 5:57.38. Silver went to Switzerland in 5:58.91 and France faded to bronze.

Adam Ling is the third member of the New Zealand team from the Western Bay, competing in the lightweight single scull, a non-Olympic class.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Firefighters walk off the job in pay and staffing strike

17 Oct 12:15 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'A long road': Police dog, handler injured after fall into 'scalding' geothermal water

16 Oct 11:04 PM
Bay of Plenty Times

Man charged over disappearance of Jason Butler who vanished four years ago this week

16 Oct 09:56 PM

Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Firefighters walk off the job in pay and staffing strike
Bay of Plenty Times

Firefighters walk off the job in pay and staffing strike

About 2000 union members nationwide walked off the job for an hour at noon.

17 Oct 12:15 AM
'A long road': Police dog, handler injured after fall into 'scalding' geothermal water
Bay of Plenty Times

'A long road': Police dog, handler injured after fall into 'scalding' geothermal water

16 Oct 11:04 PM
Man charged over disappearance of Jason Butler who vanished four years ago this week
Bay of Plenty Times

Man charged over disappearance of Jason Butler who vanished four years ago this week

16 Oct 09:56 PM


Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable
Sponsored

Poor sight leaving kids vulnerable

22 Sep 01:23 AM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP