At the end of last year, the Senior and Premier events were dominated by only two main clubs’ entries – North Shore Rowing Club and Waikato Rowing Club. Entries from other clubs were few and far between but by no means does this diminish the standard of racing from these two major squads. As these programmes grow, they continue to produce impressive performances and high standards across the athletes making up the teams, which we hope to see again throughout this weekend.
North Shore Rowing Club
Following their impressive performance at the New Zealand Rowing Championships last year, securing a Bronze medal in the senior eight, North Shore has gone from strength to strength as the season goes on. Recent highlights including KRI Christmas Regatta, where crews from the squad placed third and fifth in the senior coxless four and second in the coxless quad, whilst Olivia Tattersfield and Stevie Mabey finished as runners-up in the senior pairs. Demonstrating their strength across both sweep and sculling events, North Shore have established themselves as a major contender for these final events of the season, and from seeing snippets of the mileage they’ve been putting in over the past few weeks away from competition, it will be exciting to see what they can produce this weekend.
Waikato Rowing Club
As the only other major name on the entries lists for these categories this season so far, Waikato have also been consistent in producing notable racing performances. Along with several successful composite efforts with Otago University, securing all three top spots in the premier pair at Christmas Regatta, the club has highlighted the depth of its squad across the senior and premier events. With only a mere second and a half separating its two crews for first and second in the senior coxless four, and Samantha Voss and Katie Lush also securing the runner-up position in the premier double sculls, to name a few examples, the dominance is evident. With the coxless four being such a key event on the programme, it will be interesting to see how this widespread success, particularly in small boats, translates to the specific categories when the athletes are stretched over multiple races this weekend.
Predictions
Though it is a close call between these two major programmes, Waikato appears to have the edge based on the recent results. However, North Shore have demonstrated in the past that they know how to produce what is required to succeed in these final few major events. With that in mind, I am keen to see how they shape up following the season’s break.
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