Rowing Report

Saturday 16 November 2024

Last Weekend, the mighty Year 9 Quads travelled to the Sydney International Regatta Center to compete in the 2024 NSW All Schools Rowing Championship Regatta. This regatta had a slightly different format than regattas that the group had contended in previously, with all crews competing for a position in the A final – regardless of which heat they were in. The finals were determined purely on race time, with the nine fastest securing an A final birth, then the next nine in the B final and so on.

The heats saw some great performances from the Shore crews. Out of the seven crews that competed, four of the heats were taken out by crews from North Sydney and in a very pleasing development, Shore qualified three crews for the A final (the most from any one school). All of our quads ended up in finals against much higher-ranked crews, which set us up for some very exciting racing (albeit five hours after the finals).

Our first final was the D final, where our mighty Eighth Quad, a crew comprised of five boys that were making their Shore Rowing debuts, finished 7th but broke the 4-minute mark, which was very pleasing for the coaching staff to see. The Sixth Quad competed in the C final and had a very tight race, only just narrowly missing out on a podium finish, finishing just .5 of a second behind the Cranbrook No.1 combination.

The Fourth and Fifth Quad combinations had a great showdown with the Riverview Third Quad combination. As they entered the final 250m of the C final, all three crews had to be separated with a photo finish.

The A final was a great battle for First, Second and Third combinations. There were lots of races within the race here, with the rivalry with Riverview for the First boat on show, the Second crew aiming to take down the St Joseph’s top combination and the Third crew looking forward to having a crack at the Kinross top combination. The A final did not disappoint, with the First crew finishing in 1st place and the Second crew finishing in a very strong bronze medal position, finishing almost a boat length clear of the St Joseph’s First combination. Our Third Quad came home strong to complete their assignment against Kinross, finishing 5th overall and quite pleasingly just 0.5 of a second behind the St Joseph’s top combination.

Mr Glenn Bates
MIC Rowing