Targeted by many clubs around the country, the women’s quad should be keenly noted by spectators for this weekend’s North Island Club Championships. With one last chance for club rowers to line up against their competitors before the New Zealand Rowing Championships, we can expect the racing to be a strong indicator for the final regatta on the club scene.
Women’s Senior Coxless Quad
Waikato Rowing Club
Spearheaded in the stern three with representatives from the Trans-Tasman Regatta, and backed up in the bow seat with redcoat winner and New Zealand U23 Representative in the coxless pairs Amelia Barrell, this quad is no doubt a winner in many people’s eyes. With multiple years of experience, and hugely impressive junior careers, this quad took out the senior coxless quad with a margin of eight seconds over second place at Christmas Regatta in December. Barrell had a highly illustrious career with St Peter’s Cambridge, winning bronze in the U18 quad and U18 eight. In her club career, she won two redcoats – the highly sought-after prize for the premier eight – in both 2022 and 2023. Combined with Emily Gordon, the only returner from last year’s Nationals-winning crew, the deep pedigree is clear. Surely this makes Waikato the clear favourites to take the title at this weekend’s regatta.
North Shore Rowing Club
As is a common occurrence in many of the events this season, the main fight consistently seems to be between Waikato and rivals North Shore. Though eight seconds behind at Christmas Regatta, a not insignificant margin, this crew is not to be underestimated, featuring a line-up of seriously dangerous athletes. All four of the crew are also key members in the rapid North Shore women’s open eight, which took the win last regatta. This includes Atlanta Bruce, now a member of the University of Washington Huskies, and a previous winner of this event at both the North Island Club Championships and the New Zealand Rowing Championships back in 2021. Stern pair Olivia Tattersfield and Emma Bagrie have both had exceedingly successful junior careers, winning the U17 and U18 single sculls at Maadi Cup respectively. So, clearly this crew has the prowess to succeed, but it will be interesting to see if they’ve managed to close down any of the margin to the gold medal over the summer break.
Women’s Premier Coxless Quads
With no premier event taking place at Christmas Regatta this season, it is still ambiguous as to which crews will be present here. At last season’s National Championships, we saw Waikato take two steps of the podium – gold and bronze – so it would not be unexpected to see an entry from them again this time around. In fact, the third-place Waikato crew was a composite, featuring North Shore athlete Annabelle Knowles, now Waikato’s main competition. This may be setting a precedent that we could see more of this year, as it is not uncommon for clubs to join forces to produce composites for the premier quads. Lastly, it would not be out of the question to see a crew from Rowing New Zealand, with the coaches using this event as a means of testing combinations in race scenarios. At the North Island Championships last season, an RNZ crew took the win by over 40 seconds, though only two crews were actually entered.
Prediction
For the women’s senior coxless quad, it is simply too difficult to overlook the might of Waikato, as their margin over the rest of the field at Christmas Regatta seems just a bit too wide for any crew to overcome, however, if any crew will do it, it will be the one from North Shore. As for the premier coxless quad, unfortunately it’s anyone’s guess.
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