THE rapidly improving Bathurst-based Central Tablelands Rowing Club squad has walked away with a handful of medals, including four gold, from the important Nepean Regatta last Saturday week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The club only began a couple of years ago but already have gained some state-wide recognition through talented teenager Samantha Pett, and she was one of the stars once more on the weekend, but she wasn’t alone.
Ashleigh Brooking only took up the sport eight weeks ago and her race at Nepean was only her third, but she dominated the field and produced a convincing win in the novice women’s single scull.
Following on from that win, she teamed with Pett in the women’s under 16s double scull and the pair were simply too strong for their rivals and dominated from the outset.
Earlier Pett had contested the under 16s singles and picked up a silver, and it took a good performance from the division’s NSW champion to defeat her.
In the mens side of things, twins Nick and Ben Le Breton raced the novice single sculls and produced a brotherly quinella, with Nick taking gold and Ben the silver.
They teamed up for the novice doubles and predictably dominated that event as well.
The other medal came from Aaron Simmons who was second in the men’s under 16s single scull, a race that had plenty of state-level competitors in it.
The other Bathurst competitor to fare well was Morgan Brooking in the men’s under 17s single, finishing fourth and he, too, has a big future in front of him given that he has also only been rowing for eight weeks.
Club coach Joe Martin couldn’t have been happier with the performance of the group, and said that even he is surprised by just how rapidly they have progressed.
“It’s not really normal for rowers to get this good this quickly, no,” he said.
“They’re all training hard though, they’ve been working at it on weekends as well as Tuesdays and Thursdays out at Chifley Dam, and also doing a lot of work on the rowing machines as well.
“The next thing on the list for a few of them is the Reindeer Regatta held at the International Regatta Centre in Penrith on Saturday week, and the day after that Samantha and Aaron will contest the NSW Sprint Championships.
“Those races are held over 500 metres and are basically a splash-and-dash type thing. After that there is a bit of a break leading up to Christmas and they’ll all resume competing in late January.”
