Category: Juniors

Good Morning!

Thank you for your support to myself and the rest of the Juniors leading up to our World Championships!

The 10 week campaign took a bit of a turn when I found out I had a stress fracture on within the 3rd week, But after lots of long sessions on the bike, and plenty of milk, I was eager to jump back into a reserve double with Kathryn Glen two days before we headed off to the Czech Republic.

The boat seemed to have pretty good speed heading into our heats, which was lucky because it landed us with a win, allowing us to progress straight through to the semi-finals.

We had little knowledge of what race plans worked best for us, and little time to experiment, however, in the semi we had a close race with Germany in some rough conditions and landed a second fastest time which was just 4 seconds off the world record. This was when ourselves and our coach finally thought that we could have a chance at a podium position, but also bearing in mind that the top four boats were all within 1 second of each other, so it was gonna be tough!

The feeling after our A final when we secured a bronze was one of the most rewarding feelings. Kathryn and I are so great full for the abundance of support and hope that people had towards us through the short 2 weeks of training we had together and will remember it forever.

Kind Regards,

Stella Clayton-Greene

To the Legion of Rowing Association members,

The Junior World Championships was an incredible experience and one I am very grateful to have been apart of. Representing New Zealand and wearing the black rowsuit was such an amazing feeling and I can only hope I have another opportunity to do so in the future. The racing was very tough, and some of my crews races were definitely better than others yet I was satisfied knowing I had given my all each time we were on the water. The course in Racice was awesome to race on, with very fast water and a lot of world best times being set over the regatta. It was awesome to see the rest of the New Zealand team achieving outstanding results as they all deserved it so much. Travelling was an experience in itself and we learnt a lot about the Czech Republic and their culture. On an afternoon off we got to go into Central Prague which was a lot of fun.

I have gained so much from the whole Juniors campaign. I have learnt so much about rowing and also myself as a person. The people I have shared this experience will remain life long friends, and I hope I have the opportunities to row with them again sometime in the near or far future. I have met so many amazing and inspirational people along the way. This would not have been possible without the support of people like you supporting us throughout our journey and for that I am very grateful.

Thank you

Kind Regards,

Mollie Gibson

Dear Legion of Rowers,

I just wanted to send you a little bit of a paragraph to let you know how my time went in the Czech republic and thank you once again for your sponsorship!

My time in Prague started on the 31st of July, when we touched down after a very long, but thankfully uneventful flight. From here, we went straight to the hotel to check in and get changed for training that same afternoon. The bus ride out to the lake everyday was about 40 minutes but our buses were quite nice so it wasn’t bad. For the next week and a half we trained twice a day, just getting used to the atmosphere and our new boat.

By the time the 8th rolled around and the Junior world champs started our squad was well adjusted and ready to attack the next 5 days of racing. Our first race was a quite a competitive one as we came up against Great Britain and America. Two powerhouses of rowing, but we were well prepared and it was good to get a feel of how competitive the field was. USA and Great Britain shot out early but we kept our composure and reeled USA back in by about the 1k to finish second behind Great Britain, who we always knew would be a class crew with 2 of their 4 returning champions from last year.

Onto the Semi’s 2 days later where we were up against the home favourites Czech Republic. The semi’s were a big day because we knew that crews will do anything to make the A final and only 3 spots were available. As expected Czech republic flew out of the gates fast and it took us a little while to catch them but by about the 1500m mark we were even with them to take the win by just over half a length. Onto the A final and the nerves were starting to build up but our boys did well to hold them down. We learnt from our previous races and decided to give it a bit more at the start in an effort to keep a hold of the very starting Italian crew. This plan worked as we were still in touch with Italy and equal with Great Britain coming through the first 250. From here we executed our race plan perfectly putting us in a good position coming down to the last 500. In the last 500 we wound the rating up to pull away from Italy and finish 2nd place behind a very good Great Britain crew.

From here, I plan to row for waikato RPC and hopefully try make the U23 squad next year before heading over to a university in the states to continue my studies.

Once again I would like to thank you for your contribution because without it I would not have been able to have the experiences I have had.

Yours Sincerely,
Campbell Crouch

Dear the Legion of Rowers,

Juniors this year was such an unforgettable experience, lots of very high standard racing! Being in the single taught me a lot about managing myself as a rower and also has given me more drive to work hard for the coming domestic season. Coming away with a fourth place was pretty good, although no silverware. I gave the racing my absolute 100% so couldn’t have asked for anything better. Racing was very challenging but was fantastic experience for the future. Prague was a very beautiful city, so many old buildings and fantastic history. As a team we went for a tour one afternoon and looked around the city which was great.

Racice was a fantastic racing venue, a custom rowing course that was only about 2500m long, similar to other venues like Plovdiv. Was a very fast course with 11 world records broken over the course of our regatta which was impressive! It was a rather barren course, the surroundings reminded me of Twizel a bit, very dry environment as I think it was elevated a bit above sea level. We were very well equipped at the course, with the rowing NZ tent and trailer and ergs, plus a freezer and fans which were very very helpful to combat the heat. There was a heatwave while we were there with temps reaching up to 37 degrees so plenty of ice towels were used to say the least! Contributed well to the European summer glow though which was nice.

Hotel Duo where the team stayed was very nice, located on the outskirts of Prague, about a 45 minute bus ride away from the course. Safe to say we got very well acquainted with the bus driver during our stay! While we weren’t training or racing lots of time was spent in the lobby playing cards and drinking raspberry lemonades from the hotel bar.

The tour was absolutely fantastic, amazing to be able to visit such a beautiful country, but to also get such good racing experience, and to be surrounded with such a successful team! Everyone got along really well and can’t wait to see everyone around the country this season. Thank you all so much for your fantastic support, gave lots of the badges to the officials at the world champs so they will be treasured by quite a few people all over the place! Being my third and final juniors campaign gives me a little bit of sadness to think that this was my last year as a junior, as all three years have been so fantastic. Being able to have been part of the magic for the past three years has been an absolute honour, and has taught me so much not just about being a successful rower but about being a driven and motivated person. Thank you again for your support, and will hopefully see you all around in the future!

Kind regards,

Veronica Wall