Picton's Daniel Karena and Joseph Sullivan rowed the race of their lives to win the double sculls bronze medal at the junior world rowing championships in Germany.
The pair pushed winners Germany and runners-up Croatia all the way to the finish.
Karena and Sullivan were shock omissions from the originaleight rowers selected to compete in Germany.
A storm of protest, led by the Marlborough Rowing Association, followed their non-selection and eventually Rowing New Zealand's ombudsman had them picked in their specialist double sculls event, coached by Dave Thompson.
As well as catching up on some missed training, they also had to raise about $20,000 to fund their trip, a task their supporters managed with the help of a $10,000 donation from Christchurch businessman Graeme Rose.
Speaking from Germany soon after their row, Karena and Sullivan said the fundraising efforts and their initial non-selection added to their motivation.
"We are thrilled," Karena said.
"They [the selectors] thought we couldn't do it when they didn't originally pick us. We proved them wrong.
"To finish in the top three, that's what we aimed for - that's what we got and now we are off to Berlin to do some nightclubbing."
"This is pretty cool," Sullivan said.
"It was the hardest race of my life. Our race plan was pretty simple - go out hard with the rest. We really wanted a medal. A silver or a gold would have been good but a bronze is still cool."
