THE going was tough for Central Tablelands Rowing Club’s six representatives at the NSW Rowing Championships at Penrith over the weekend.
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Over last Friday through to Sunday, the sole podium finish was Jackson Riley’s hard-fought bronze in the men’s para single scull, while the remainder fell shy of the semi-finals phase.
It was a reminder of the strength of the NSW rowing system for the Central Tablelands group, as fifth placings in heats were their next best result.
All the team, barring Aaron Simmons, were contesting the championships for the first time, plus a majority of the team had to take the step up from under 17s to 19s – and with that came an increase in distance.
With that in mind, team coach Joe Martin was happy with the way members of his group handled themselves and is confident improvements will be seen in 12 months.
“It was tough for them, but they didn’t disgrace themselves. They rowed well, really. A lot of them have gone from under 17s to under 19s and a lot of those rowers that they came up against won’t be there next year,” he said.
“It’s a big learning curve having to go from the 1000 to 2000m distance. They’ll be back next year. They’ve got the times that were rowed, so they know what to aim for. They all need to take around a minute off their times.”
Simmons rowed an eight minute and 19 second time for the under 19s single scull, lifting himself out of last place at the halfway point to finish sixth. He was later pushed in the schoolboy single scull race, where he took a second off that mark.
A 9:07 came Ashleigh Brooking’s way in her under 19s single scull. She improved one spot to fifth for her schoolgirl heat, though did so in 9:17 over the 2000m.
Georgia Shiels suffered a fault with the strapping at her feet, making her rowing difficult, but fought back well to come within a couple of tenths of digging herself out of last place in the under 16s single scull.
Ben and Nick Le Breton were fighting to avoid last in the middle stages of their schoolboy double scull race, but showed stamina to go clear of that fight with a time of 7:47.
Martin said it wasn’t difficult to identify the experienced rowers in the heats, and thinks his team can be in that position next time around.
“Aaron Simmons rowed a personal best on the Friday in the under 19s, then he did another later in the schoolboys race. He’ll improve, as will all of them,” he said.
“They all enjoyed it and they’ll be looking forward to going back. In the heats you could pick the difference between the older ones in the age group and those new to it. They’ll develop over the coming year and get stronger.”