CENTRAL Tablelands Rowing Club members Callie Capomolla and Aaron Simmons both scored podium finishes at the recent Combined High Schools Rowing Championships at Taree.

The duo took a break from representing their club and instead rowed for their schools at the carnival, with Capomolla competing for Lithgow High School and Simmons for Kelso High.

They did both their schools proud as Capomolla scored gold in the girls under 15s single scull, while Simmons was second in the inter-regional eights and fourth in the championship men’s single scull. 

“They both improved with every race over the weekend. Callie won her heat and semi and then really took it to them in the final,” CTRC coach Joe Martin said.

“We knew that Aaron would have a tough time given his race had the current under 19s state champion [Max Brenner]. He won his heat, was third in the semi and then was just beaten to third in the final by the Grafton rower.”

Capomolla had a good fight from the outset of the 1,000-metres under 15s event. She just saw off North Sydney Girls rower Ela Cimen in heat three to progress to the semi-finals.

The five-minute barrier was almost broken by Capomolla in the semi-final as she clocked her quickest time of the weekend, a 5:01.71.

She then saw of Cimen by 5.94 seconds in the final to take the gold.

Simmons was far too good for the competition in the second heat of the championship men’s single scull over 2,000m as he cruised home to win by 20 seconds over his nearest rival.

His quickest time of the day in the semi-final, 8:50.90, was enough for third and a spot in the final.

The Kelso student entered the final with the fourth-quickest time and that was where he finished – position four – at the conclusion of the decider.

The race for the single scull title was a thriller, with Brenner beating his Concord High schoolmate Lloyd Caetano by 0.17 of a second.

Only 1.75 seconds prevented Simmons and his Sydney North crew from getting the better of their Sydney East rivals in the inter-regional race.

“There weren’t enough rowers for a Western region team, so Aaron got into the Sydney North team along with three boys from Fort Street High and four from Concord High. They only went down by two seconds and that was to the second [tier] GPS eights crew,” Martin said.

“They’ve been rowing all season together, whereas Aaron and his crew were put together about an hour before the race. The only time that they had rowed together was up to the starting line. That’s the first time that Aaron had raced in eights and he looked very good in it.”