Whanganui rowers get opportunity at High Performance Centre

The Union Boat Club prize giving recipients for 2017-18. Among them is guest speaker and NZ Olympic rower Alistair Bond, far left, and recent Rowing NZ Service award recipient Bob Evans, far right.

Another indication of the growing strength of Whanganui rowing is in the number of young rowers who were invited to the Central Rowing Performance Camp (RPC) in Blenheim last weekend.

When Rowing New Zealand (RNZ) centralised its High Performance programme over 15 years ago, it proceeded to set up four RPC's around New Zealand – with Auckland, Waikato, Central and Southern the names of them.

To the disappointment of Whanganui at the time, the Central RPC was set up in Blenheim and encompasses the regions of Marlborough, Wellington and Whanganui.

The purpose of these centres is five fold.

1. To develop pre-elite talent and athletes capable of making New Zealand crews, right through to in future Olympic level.

2. To provide a clear high performance program for athletes and coaches.

3. To assist local associations in the catchment area with development of athletes and coaches.

4. To link tertiary institutions into the sport of rowing and provide pro-active monitoring and support through year round dedicated programmes.

The success of the centralised model is hard to debate, with NZ Rowing have unprecedented success on the world stage over the last 20 years.

However, like our national sport of rugby, it has undoubtedly stripped clubs of the cream of their athlete and coaching talent for many years now, with all New Zealand crews from Junior, Under 21, Under 23 and Elite level required to move to Lake Karapiro to train for their impending competitions.

In fact, our very own Elite rowers are based full-time at Lake Karapiro, training under the banner of "NZ Summer Squad" over the summer months, prior to trialing for New Zealand crews in March, then training and being contracted fulltime until after the World Championships or Olympics, depending on the year, which is usually early September.

The success of RPC's is a bit more debatable and varies depending on the location of the centre, with Waikato being probably the most successful, given those athletes virtually train next to the NZ Squad for much of the year.

The young rowers who attended the first Central RCP camp of the winter last weekend included Collegiate's Maddie McLean, Catherine Pearce, Grace and Blake Hogan, Jack Pringle, Sam Manson, Leo Hanna and Ben Sherratt, with coach Tyler Scott having a winter development coaching role.

It also included Aramoho Whanganui RC/Whanganui High School's Niamh Monk, Jonty Thomson and Levi Carroll.

It was a pretty big weekend including a two way trip on the ferry and five on-water rowing sessions in sunny but bitterly cold conditions, with Under 18 rowers from around the region mixing it in boats together.

This gave the rowers and RPC coaches a closer look at some of the best young talent in their region.

The weekend before I attended the Rowing NZ AGM in Dunedin as a Whanganui delegate, with a highlight of the weekend being the awarding of two awards to the Evans brothers.

First recognition was to David Evans – awarded the Whanganui Rowing Association Volunteer of the Year Award and who has diligently ran all aspects of a rowing IT system for a decade, without any personal involvement in rowing.

At the RNZ Awards Dinner, Robert (Bob) Evans was awarded a coveted Rowing NZ Service Award with over 50 years involvement to Whanganui Rowing and all our clubs as a coxswain, rower, coach, regatta official and administrator, including being a current member of Rowing NZ Board.

Finally, don't forget the second race in the Blinkhorne & Carroll Forestry Winter Series is on Sunday, June 10.

This race is over 6km, starts 9.30am from the National Library Building, turning opposite Caffray Ave and finishing at the 2km finish by the Railway Bridge.

Entries to cyclekiwi@gmail.co, and it's open to rowers, kayakers and waka ama, with $2 entry per seat and prizemoney to be won.