2019 NSW Masters Championships: 4-5th May

9/5/2019

The final NSW regatta for the season was finally here, and the older members of the club had the opportunity to race against the best in the state in their respective age groups. We only had a small contingent of six Nepean rowers competing, however we were able to organise a few composite crews which enabled us to have more racing.
Saturday racing commenced for Nepean with Jacqui teaming up with Dux (BWRC) in the A double. A strong Glebe crew pushed off early and while the Nepean composite crew began to claw back Shellharbour City, they did not have enough left in the tank to bring back the early lead they established. They went away with the bronze. Jacqui shortly after this race jumped into the mixed double with Jason to defend their title from last year. Newcastle Uni and Nepean pushed away from the rest of the field and it was a two-crew race for the gold. While Jason and Jacqui started to gain on the Newcastle Uni crew in the later stages of the race it was not enough and they had to settle for second with only eight one hundredths of a second separating first and second.
In other mixed racing, Jason, Magnus, Jacqui and Fiona teamed up to take out the mixed quad. The other big boat of the day saw Jason, Sean (BWRC), Magnus and Daniel line up for the B quad. A good start and smooth racing resulted in them having a boat length lead coming into the final two hundred and fifty metres. A crab by the Nepean composite crew saw the trailing Black Mountain crew take a brief lead but this did not faze the crew who lifted for the final couple of hundreds of metres to take the gold.

Mixed A quad: Jacqui, Fiona, Magnus and Jason

C single champion: Magnus

In the small boats, Magnus had a tough race in the C single. A Melbourne University sculler was the one to watch and he got off to a good lead with Magnus trailing in second. Magnus kept his composure and while some would say his recovery was not seamless, he pushed through in the final stages of the race to claim the victory.
Paul had a tight tussle with Sean (BWRC) in the D single and got on top in their battle, with Paul taking the silver by four hundredths of a second.
Jacqui had a good race in the A single to place fourth. While still not attaining a medal, she continues to move in the right direction having placed sixth in the same event last year.

A single: Jacqui

Jason and Daniel raced the A pair, with only having raced the pair once previously, one of the members was a bit nervous (easy guess as to who that was). A mishap by the starter did cause some confusion but the pair got on with the race at hand. Keeping their composure, they came into the final stages with the Black Mountain crew who lead from the start in their sights. A less than desirable few strokes by someone who will go unnamed was not ideal and saw the Black Mountain crew take gold and Nepean take silver. While not happy with the result due to matters both outside and within the crew’s control, we always need to learn from experiences such as these and implement this into future racing.
Sunday racing began with still conditions but much like the previous day the conditions changed throughout.
The first final of the day for us was the women’s A four. This crew has improved since first coming together, however they are still a very new combination and are still working on moving the boat together. The crew of Jacqui, Shantelle (NUBC), Dux (BWRC) and Fiona got off the start cautiously but began to find their groove as the race went on. They pushed away from the remainder of the field to claim a six second victory.

A four: Fiona, Dux, Shantelle and Jacqui

This same crew combined for the A quad and went away with bronze. Shantelle (NUBC) and Jacqui then came together for the A pair. They have had a few training sessions in the pair and have come together well. They were off a two second handicap from the other two crews in the race but they made this back within the first two hundred and fifty metres to then push away and go on to claim the gold.
Jason and Daniel progressed through their heat to make it to the A double final. A controlled start saw them in the mix early on with Manning River crew pushing off to a lead coming through the middle of the race. However, the Nepean crew kept to their plan and pushed through them to take away the win. Jason went on to combine with Sean (BWRC), Rhett (Manning) and Sean (Endeavour) in the C quad. They reclaimed their title from last year with a good race to row through the early leaders from Glebe. Later in the day Jason raced in the A single. It was a two-boat race early on with Newcastle Uni pushing Jason for the first half of the race but with three hundred metres to go Jason pulled away to take away a good win and claim the title for the second year running.