Sights Set On N.Z. Rowing Titles

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31170, 21 September 1966, Page 15

Sights Set On N.Z. Rowing Titles

' A GROUP of Avon Rowing ■* Club members has set its sights on winning events in New Zealand championship regattas in the next two or three years, and is following a training programme with this in mind. Coming up to championship standard is not usually achieved in one season but is the culmination of yearround steady training over several seasons.

This group, in conjunction with members from other clubs, started its programme during the winter to prepare for the 1968 and 1969 championships. Training during the winter months included twice weekly callisthenics sessions at the Avon club house followed by Sunday morning running along sandhills at a nearby beach, week-end rowing and film instruction evenings. The club has now obtained the coaching services of T. Sutherland, formerly a member of the Union club, who coached the 1965 champion pair crew. The club has also a number of promising young oarsmen, such as D. Hartman and R. Beattie. Both were in the novice class last season and will be rowing as maidens in the coming

season, which opens on October 8. A junior, K. Clarke, rowed in Australia last year and is expected to show the benefit of his trip. A third-year senior oarsman, F. O’Gorman, has acquired bis own singles shell and will concentrate on senior scull events.

The Avon Indoor Bowling Club, whose members are former Avon rowing club members and friends, gave O’Gorman financial assistance in his purchase. This club has also offered to pay the first year’s subscription for new Avon members. Three other oarsmen who have been rowing as schoolboys for St. Bede’s for several years will continue their association with the club and compete in the junior class. One is D. Lindstrom, the son of E. Lindstrom, who with his brother, G. Lindstrom, won the champion pairs in 1946, 1947, and 1950. Mr Lindstrom has been a member of the Avon club for many years and is regarded as one of the club’s most active and enthusias-

tic members. In addition to his club work he is assistant coach of the School-! boys’ Rowing Association ■ and has coached many crews for his club. Elected as a national sei- j ector in 1960, Mr Lindstrom' helped to select the New Zealand crew which com- i peted in the Empire Games! in Perth. His son became a cox for a St. Bede’s crew in 1960. Together with V. Stewart and T. Tohill, he has been rowing for St. Bede’s since 1962.