NSW State Championships: 15th-17th February 2019

27/2/2019

The pinnacle event for age racing for the state was finally upon us. We had a small group of rower’s head to SIRC for the event. The NSW State Championships is the strongest state Championships in Australia with many interstate competitors competing in all age categories. We had very good rowing conditions for all three days and the rowers took advantage of this along with some good training coming into the competition, to pull very good times.
First up was Miles in the under 19 singles on the Friday afternoon. Being an under-age rower in an event with half the competition from interstate, meant it was going to be hard to progress to the final. Miles executed a very good race a and pulled a personal best time but unfortunately missed out on making it into the final by just one and a half seconds. He then went on to compete on the Sunday in the schoolboy single representing Penrith Anglican College. He progressed through to the semi final where he had a good race, but he was not quite quick enough to progress to the final, coming in sixth, with the final qualifying fourth spot being one and a half seconds quicker than him.
In the under 16 single Sarah had a comfortable heat to progress through to the semi-final. She pushed hard off the start but paid for this in the later stages, and she was unable to progress to the final. She did pull a personal best time, and learnt from the experience.
Hugh competed in the under 16 singles. He had a tough heat and pulled a big personal best to progress to the final. He had a very disciplined race in the final, racing his best race to date and pushed through the field as the race progressed to place fourth. While not attaining a medal, this is a very good achievement, and one he should be very proud of.
Aimee competed in the under 17 singles. She progressed through the heat and semi to make it into the final. She raced her own race in the final and came off the start at the back, but worked hard to place sixth in the race and fourth against the NSW rowers.
Jooya was the final race on the Sunday for us and competed in the under 17 single. He did what he had to in the heat to progress through to the final. He paced his race well in the final and was out the back off the start. He worked through rowers as they tired, to come second against a Queensland rower. A silver medal after a tough off season due to an injury is a good demonstration of his good work ethic which has allowed him to get back on track so quickly.
I was personally very happy with the results on the weekend and for anyone who knows me, knows that does not happen all that often. The rowers sent to this year’s regatta worked very hard this season to achieve these results and they should all be very happy with their own personal achievements. While I was happy with many aspects of the racing over the weekend, I was most impressed by the mature racing of such young rowers. The ability to flat pace, especially in young age categories, is tough with so many other rowers positive splitting races. The ability to do this shows great maturity and puts these rowers in a good position for future racing.