High Quality Racing at NSW State Championships

By Georgia Koutts
The plethora of interstate competitors enhanced the already impressive depth of competition at the NSW State Championships held in stifling conditions at the Sydney International Regatta Centre last weekend. The quality of the competition fostered two days of exciting racing in which a record number of photo finishes were taken and most Australian states were represented. 

Geoffrey Stewart and Bo Hansen clocked a fast 6:26.34 in the men’s pair

The highlight of the first day of racing was the heavyweight men’s pair won by Olympic bronze medallists Geoffrey Stewart and Bo Hanson in a very fast time of 6:26.34. In a strong tail breeze, they took an early lead and held on to win despite a late comeback by the rest of the field in the last 500m. To the disappointment of many, dual Olympic gold medallist and member of Oarsome Foursome, Mike McKay withdrew from the event suffering a possible tear in his bicep. Instead, the threat to Stewart and Hanson came from Victorian pair, Myers and McPherson who finished less than a second behind. Also closing in on the leaders were the pairs of Baxter and Chapman and Stewart and Welch. There was less than 2 seconds separating the top 6 places indicating how closely fought the race to the line was.

Both Stewart and Hanson were pleased with their race. Hanson remarked “we rowed confidently and stuck to our race plan” while Stewart stated that “it was great to see so much competition coming from interstate and even overseas” with German Olympians Jan Herzog and Ike Langvoit racing.

In the men’s single scull, Australian national champion Duncan Free withdrew from the final due to a recurring knee injury despite having done a time of 6:50.91 to win his heat. Despite his absence there was still a strong field in the final with Queenslander, Shaun Coulton beating Mosman rower Peter Hardcastle for the title.

In the double sculls event, 4^th place getters at last years world championships, Hardcastle and Craig Jones were upstaged by the new combination of Mitchell Punch and Shaun Coulton who looked impressive in winning the hotly contested event.

Australian men’s head coach, Noel Donaldson was very pleased with the quality of the small boat racing on the first day of the event citing good times across the board albeit with a strong tail wind and warm water, that suggest all crews have recovered from their endurance camps of last month. Donaldson did however lament the absence of the men’s squads from West Australia and Tasmania that would have turned these state championships into a truly national event.

In the women’s events, Monique Heinke defended her title in the women’s pair with new partner, triple

Monika Heinke and Victoria Roberts take the women’s pair

world champion Victoria Roberts. They won their pair event by well over two lengths in a time of 7:11:21. Roberts and Heinke then completed the trifecta of pair, four and eight by combining with South Australians, Price and Anstey to win the four and joining with other club mates for the Women’s eight.

In the women’s single scull, Nations Cup silver medallist Liz Kell won by a mere 0.17 seconds over world champion in the four, Jodi Winter. Jodi swapped her sweep oar for two sculling oars while partner Kristina Larsen, also from the world champion four, is recovering from injury.

As ever, the highlight of the two-day regatta was the Men’s eight race. Fresh from their win in the pair the day before, Geoff Stewart and Bo Hanson joined fellow club mates and Australian representatives Stephen Stewart, James Chapman, Stuart Welch, Nick Baxter, Chris Bayliss, Dave Mathews and Michael Toon to be first across the line and make it a double in the men’s and women’s eight for the UTS Club. The highly experienced crew held off strong challenges from the Victorian crews of Mercantile and Melbourne University and finished in a time of 5:36.92.

Seven seat from the UTS eight, James Chapman, with champagne in hand, exclaimed after the race that it was “close exciting racing out there” summing up what certainly was a tough weekend of racing in Penrith.