Kiwi team bristles with local rowers

BY JOHN ALEXANDER

An Irishman, two brothers and a rookie gave Marlborough rowing supporters plenty to celebrate over the weekend.

When New Zealand elite and under-23 rowing crews were announced at Lake Karapiro on Friday after a gruelling week of trials, Robbie and Karl Manson, from the Wairau and Blenheim rowing clubs respectively, were named in the same under-23 double sculls crew for the world championships in Belarus in July.

Sean O'Neill, who rowed for Ireland at the Beijing Olympics, is in the elite coxless four with Wairau team-mate Hamish Burson, Dave Eade and Jade Uru.

Kylie Wright, the rookie first-year rower who took the recent nationals by storm, is in the under-23 women's eight with Wairau team-mate Tarsha Williams.

Picton's Joseph Sullivan has stepped up from three successive world under-23 titles, last year with Robbie Manson in the double, to nudge Matthew Trott out of the elite double sculls and join Nathan Cohen. That means three Marlborough clubs – Picton, Blenheim and Wairau – are all represented in one of the biggest New Zealand teams to be sent to Europe.

The Manson brothers almost appeared shocked to be selected in the same boat, their selection following in the footsteps of their father, Greg Manson, who also rowed for New Zealand.

Speaking after arriving back in Blenheim yesterday, 20-year-old Robbie said he was proud both had been selected but it was a surprise when he and Karl, 18, were initially paired together at the trials.

"For a start I was a bit shocked, but I have got used to it now and it should go all right.

"We hadn't rowed together before the trials. There are a lot of things to work on. We need to get a combination going. It's a good opportunity and something a bit different."

When asked who was the boss, Robbie said, "I'm definitely the boss."

Robbie will stroke the boat with Karl in the bow, which he doesn't mind at all.

"I was surprised to get in the same boat as Robbie. It's the best thing that could have happened to me at the trials. I think about all the boats I could have got into and this is the best.

"To be rowing with someone who has already won a world title last year is pretty cool."

Karl, who represented New Zealand at under-18 level in Austria two years ago, had intended going to Otago University this year but all that's on hold now for rowing.

For O'Neill, being picked for New Zealand second time around is a dream come true.

He always wanted to wear the silver fern and would have back in 2002 until a last-minute passport issue meant he had to pull out of the team virtually the day before leaving to go overseas because his New Zealand passport had not come through.

"I was all packed and ready to go, so it was pretty disappointing."

He threw his hand in with his native Ireland and at Beijing his coxed four team finished 10th.

He is over the moon about being picked for New Zealand again and this time there will not be any passport problems.

"Bloody good. It was quite cool hearing my name being read out by Luke [Rowing New Zealand high performance commissioner and Wairau coach Luke van Velthooven, who read the team out at RNZ headquarters last Friday].

"It's a pretty cool feeling. It's kind of what I intended to do years ago. It's a dream come true. I can't wait."

O'Neill is in the top-ranked coxless four and in the other is Wairau's Ian Seymour.

Just how strong rowing is in Marlborough, with the Central Region High Performance Centre based here, was illustrated in the number of rowers picked from that group. As well as O'Neill, Wright, Williams, Sullivan, the Mansons, Seymour and Burson, three other Wairau rowers, including world lightweight single sculls champion Duncan Grant, were picked. Wairau's Fiona Paterson and her Central RPC team-mate, Anna Reymer, are in the double scull. Central's Rebecca Scown teams up with former world champion Juliette Haig in the pair.

The squad competes in two world cup regattas in Slovenia, Germany and Switzerland and Britain's Henley Royal Regatta between May and July. On returning home, they undergo another set of trials before the final selection is made for the world champs at Lake Karapiro in October/November.

As O'Neill said, "We can't get complacent about anything. We want to do well at the world cups so they [selectors] don't have to reconsider crews."

NEW ZEALAND SQUADS

Elite men: Mahe Drysdale (single scull), Duncan Grant (lightweight single scull), Eric Murray, Hamish Bond (double scull), Joseph Sullivan and Nathan Cohen (lightweight double scull), Storm Uru, Peter Taylor (lightweight double scull), Matthew Trott, Nathan Twaddle, Paul Gerritsen, John Storey (quad), Jade Uru, Sean O'Neill, Hamish Burson, David Eade (coxless four), Michael Arms, Ben Hammond, Ian Seymour, Tyson Williams (coxed four).

Elite women: Emma Twigg (single scull), Juliette Haig, Rebecca Scown (pair), Anna Reymer, Fiona Paterson (double scull), Paula Twining, Louise Trappitt, Emma Feathery, Harriet Austin (quad).

Under-23 men: Robbie Manson, Karl Manson (double scull), Adam Tripp, Tufi Sele, Tobias Wehr-Candler, David Mabbott, cox Ivan Pavich (coxed four), Graham Oberlin-Brown, James Lassche, Finnian Scott, Curtis Rapley (lightweight four).

Under-23 women: Lucy Strack, Julia Edward (lightweight double scull), Laura Fischer, Ali Burnside, Lucy Spoors, Sarah Gray (quad scull), Kelsey Bevan, Zoe Stevenson, Hayley Hoogeveen, Kylie Wright, Fiona Bourke, Jess Loe, Genevieve Behrent, Tarsha Williams, cox to be confirmed (eight).

- The Marlborough Express