Waikato eight regain Sun Cup

The sun finally shone on the Waikato Regional Performance Centre (RPC) at the end of the national rowing club champs.

The host RPC's men's eight won the Sun Cup in the blue riband event at Lake Karapiro on Saturday.

After a Waikato club crew had earlier been pipped in the dying stages of the premier men's coxed four for the prestigious Boss Rooster trophy, the Waikato RPC eight shot out early and held on to regain the trophy from their Southern RPC rivals.

"It was pretty much catch us if you can," said Waikato's Eric Murray.

"We were pretty nervous going into it. We'd done a few training rows and decided how we were going to go about it but we weren't expecting to get out in front early," Murray said. "We put the pressure on, they kept attacking and we just had to respond."

They did so, with the crew of Josh Payne, Tyson Williams, Andrew Healey, James Dallinger, Paul Gerritsen, Simon Watson, Murray, David Eade and coxswain Matt Cameron winning in 5 minutes 35.29 seconds, with Southern close behind in 5:38.32.

The Waikato combination of Gerritsen, Williams, Tobias Wehr-Candler, Eade and cox Ivan Pavich also rowed out to an early lead in the coxed fours final but had West End, boasting world champion single sculler Mahe Drysdale, and Wairau pushing them hard.

West End's late charge saw them cross first in six minutes 17.04 seconds, with Waikato just 1.46s back.

The beaten outfit entered a protest over an amended crew line-up but the victors' crew of Dane Boswell, Ian Seymour, Warwick Wright, Shaun O'Neil and coxswain Hannah Sloan were eventually able to collect their medals and get on with the tradition of painting over Waikato's colours on the Boss Rooster trophy and decorating it in their own emerald green and white colours.

As expected, the star single sculls duo of Drysdale and Emma Twigg were convincing victors in their respective finals on Saturday.

Titleholder and four-times world champ Drysdale beat out a field that contained five senior or age-group world champs, with Saturday's runner-up Nathan Cohen the only finalist without a world title.

Drysdale triumphed in 6m 58.51s, over three seconds clear of Cohen with visiting German star Marcel Hacker continuing his improved showing at the regatta by finishing third but four seconds behind Cohen.

Twigg was even more dominant in her specialist event, making it an Auckland RPC singles double when winning easily from surprise second-placed package Odette Sceats from the Waikato RPC.

Third-placed Fiona Paterson capped a busy schedule for Central RPC with wins in the women's eight and the quadruple scull on Saturday to go with an earlier success in the double sculls.

The Central quad of Louise Trappitt, Paterson, Rebecca Scown and Anna Reymer got the better of Auckland's Leah Stanley, Juliette Haigh, Emma Feathery and Twigg by just over two seconds while the Southern RPC combination of Storm Uru, Hamish Bond, Matthew Trott and Cohen won the men's quad in 5:55.38, seeing off the challenge of Central's Duncan Grant, Robbie Manson, Joseph Sullivan and Steve Cottle.

The Cambridge club starred on the final day with Morgan Dunham and Gabby Rogers capturing gold in the women's senior pair while the crew of Jessica Munro, Megan Vaughan, Georgia Perry and Ashleigh Hodge rowed to gold in the women's club quad.

Ben Norling and Mark Patterson capped an outstanding morning's work for the club with victory in the men's senior pair.

There were also more promising signs for Hamilton Boys' High School's likely success at next month's North Island and Maadi Cup secondary school regattas when the crew of Mackenzie Macky, Nick Ross, Jason Stroud, Shaun Kirkham and coxswain Caleb Shepherd won the men's under-19 coxed four.

- © Fairfax NZ News