Two promising young rowers claimed the coveted Dick Tonks Trophy after winning the annual Wanganui Rowing Association event.
Jackie Gowler and Georgia Nugent-O'Leary combined in the double scull to post a prognostic score of 96.2 per cent in the event open to all small craft and hosted by the UnionBoat Club on Sunday. Prognostic scores are based on the best world time for each craft and crew and the percentage represents how close each entry gets to that time.
The event on the Whanganui River featured a field of nine competitors, from rowing teams to one waka entry, paddling out of the Union club.
Gowler, who is in the national junior rowing squad, is following in the footsteps of her world champion sister Kerri Gowler, who is in the New Zealand Rowing Squad.
Members of the Aramoho-Wanganui club, Nugent-O'Leary and Jackie Gowler were part of the women's club coxed four who won gold at the national championships this year.
On Sunday the pair were just .22 percentage points ahead of an Aramoho-Wanganui composite four comprising Luke Watts, Jack Hughes, Tom Monaghan and Hugh Pawson. A further full percentage point behind was another Aramoho-Wanganui composite crew including under-17 rep Milly Thompson and under-16 rower Talia Sua'a.
The Dick Tonks Trophy is a one-off event tacked on to the end of the Wanganui Winter Series that ended last month and honours the work of Wanganui's Tonks, who was head coach for the New Zealand Olympic team in London in 2012. He now focuses mainly on female rowers in the national squad.
