SA CHAMPS !

SA Champs spanned Friday, Saturday and Sunday (4th to the 6th of March). Ideal conditions saw some exceptional racing in which a few records fell. Including heats, semi’s and finals, races went off every 6minutes all weekend. A big thank you must go to the officials and organizing committee that made this event happen. It is astounding to see how the sport has grown and hope that we see many of these juniors rowing in the senior clubs soon.

FRIDAY: (Pairs and Singles)
On the Friday we picked up our 1st medal of the weekend in the U16 pair. Botes and Barclay have had a good season, somewhat low on raw horsepower; they have brought home many medals this season in our new boat ARES. They have showed good boatmanship and been very reliable in their delivery of medals throughout the season, including buffalo regatta.

Lantieri placed 5th and Viadana 6th in the u14 singles event. Both of these boys have come on in leaps and bounds - and we all know that this gives us a lot of promise moving forward. Lantieri in particular, has not been rowing long at all and has surprised a lot of his more experienced counterparts.

In the u15 sculls young Daniel Kelly was 7th in his semi-final after placing 2nd in his heat. There were 8 heats in this event, meaning there were 64 entries for this title. Kelly is a gutsy racer and we congratulate him on a solid season.
In the open sculls, our junior open (u17) Francois McDonough won his heat, but felt the pace a little as he placed 7th in the semi. Hopefully this is a challenge for him and we can place next year in this event. It has been a few years since we had a competitive 1st sculler.

SATURDAY:
Saturday brought with it prospects of a few medals. The first four however had a disappointing day, rowing 3rd in the heat with an injury problem (cramp) which pushed them out of the final by a second. They won the B final convincingly with a good time and wishing that they could have shown their mettle in the A final. Lesson to us all; keep hydrated and keep the electrolytes up… Your best chance of avoiding this problem. That being said, there is no question that the boys gave it their all. Luckily, they didn’t have to empty the tank to win the B final, saving some legs for the eight on Sunday.
The 2nd four placed 5th in the B final, a good effort from them too, well done.

Then the highlight of the regatta, our u14’s won the one and only Gold of the regatta, in new record time. Having to work from a bout ½ a length down in the octuple, they brought some good speed towards the line which proved too hot for others to match. It has been an outstanding season for them and we congratulate them on a brilliant result! To top it off, the B oct won the B final, also rowing very well. Well dome to Attie and Lincoln, their dedicated coaches, for a fantastic season! Our U14 double was also 6th overall – also a commendable result for them.

Amidst many B final results, the u15 quad were disappointed with 8th in the “A” final and had to pick up the pieces and positively focus their attention on the oct (Sunday). The u16 eight placed a commendable 4th, although their expectation was far higher looking at their faces after the race… This crew has displayed great guts – having lost two of their mates to the 1st eight this season, the final line up actually had 4 novices (boys that started rowing on September camp) – thus, in my eyes, an incredible result. Well done Trevor and to the boys on turning this crew around. They started the season 45seconds of the pace and ended within 13 seconds of the exceptional Bennies combo.

SUNDAY:
For the 2nd time, the 1st team had a disappointing day. They finished 7th in a race where it was started before they were ready. Nick Tickle’s hand was up and the crew was backing and getting straightened up in the light crosswind. Very costly for them, as they had to fight extremely hard to get back on terms by the 1200m. They had a late rattle from about 600m to go, but the grind had been too much - and they ran out of legs in the final burst. The gutted crew, raced with a huge amount of commitment. It is a shame their result doesn’t do this justice. That’s the way it goes sometimes, no excuses, they say… They know that they gave it their all and that is all we can ask for. Hopefully most of them will continue into university rowing and have another crack at some races like that... That being said, it was an incredible final and there was some cracking racing this season. Well done to Bennies who regained the title of 1st eight champions.

The u14’s once again brought home the metal in the form of silver in the quad. Another great row by them, hoping to claim Gold I’m sure… Even number finishes are never sought after in a final! The nice thing is that we finished 2nd, 5th and 8th in this final: The only club to have 3 finalist combinations. Well done again, we owe many points to our youngsters this year.

The 2nd eight were 6th . Some boys in this group have worked hard in the last few weeks of the season. Well done to them on their improvement.

The u15 oct had a cracking final pulling a bronze in a classy event. The St. Johns winners rowed 3 10. Bearing in mind the u16 eights record over a 1000m which stood since abut 1987 was 305. Our oct was in at 3,17 in neutral conditions. They cranked out a good race. In the double, we came home with 8th position.

The last medal of the regatta came from the u16 four which had an outstanding row – their best in the 4 this season, no doubt.

All in all a good regatta and some definite promise. King Edwards continues to move forward, despite a lower medal count this year.