ROWING: HB crews enjoy golden hour at nationals

SHANE HURNDELL
Hawke's Bay Rowing Club's Simon Lack resisted a trip to the pub on Friday night to celebrate the club's first red coat in 55 years.
"I told Rohan (his coach Rohan Condon) and Cedric (club president Cedric Bayly) I had another red coat to win the next day and I got that one too," Lack, 22, said this morning as he reflected on his success at last week's Lake Karapiro-hosted nationals.
Red coats are awarded to rowers who win premier titles and Lack, who has been rowing since 1998, like clubmate and world junior single sculls champion Emma Twigg took advantage of the new composite crew rule to collect three between them.
On Friday Lack, a regular New Zealand age group rep since 2001, combined with West End's world single scull champion Mahe Drysdale to win the men's premier double scull title.
The following day Lack collected his second red coat when he and Drysdale teamed up with Brad Mytton and Simon Hoadley to comfortably win the men's premier quadruple scull title.
There was a dramatic finish to the race as Lack's oar broke on the finish line and punched a hole through the boat.
Fortunately the title was won and the crew were able to paddle to shore before the boat began to sink.
"Rohan and Cedric put on a couple of kegs on Saturday night and I didn't mind helping them out with the celebrations then," said Lack who starts his second year of Tourism Studies at Waikato University this week.
Less than an hour after Lack secured his first red coat on Friday the Kelt Capital-sponsored Twigg became the first Bay woman to win a red coat. Twigg joined West End's Juliette Haigh, Nicky Coles and Erin Tolhurst to win the premier women's four.
Just as the New Zealand team had their golden hour at last year's world championships in Japan, Hawke's Bay had their's at the nationals.
Both Lack and Twigg have been selected in Rowing New Zealand's national elite and under-23 trials respectively and teams will be selected next week to attend the elite world championships in England and the under-23 world championships in Belgium later this year.
Coach Condon received a green coat as green coats are presented to coaches when their crews win premier titles at national championships.
In between Lack's and Twigg's gold medal efforts Hawke's Bay's No 1 novice four boys crew of Jason Kitchin (stroke), Jack Crawford, Maia Solomon and Daniel Starkey with coxwain Nic Mogford was involved in the most intense race of the regatta.
With 150 metres remaining the Bay boys hit the lead but Tauranga responded and pipped them by one second for gold. Hawke's Bay's under-21 women's pair of Gabrielle Rogers and Alexandra Ritchie won gold with a seven second victory over their Nelson opponents in the final. They are coached by East Coast Rowing Association's development officer and former New Zealand rep Dave Rodger.
Blair Harrison and Cameron Smith secured a bronze medal in the men's club double scull final.
In one of the glamour events at the nationals, the women's premier eight, Twigg, Rogers, Ritchie, Sarah Alexander and Cassie Stanford combined with Haigh, Coles and Tolhurst in a composite team which finished second to another crew from the Union Wanganui and Wairau clubs.