John Stuart has long drive for success

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33766, 12 February 1975, Page 12

John Stuart has long drive for success

(By

T. R. DUNBAR)

A dedicated oarsman who travels 350 miles every week to train at Kerrs Reach might win Canterbury’s first national sculling title for 17 years at Lake Waihola later this month.

As well as driving along what has become a “welltrodden Path” from Le Bons Bay to the river on Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, John Stuart, a 28-year-old maiden sculler, has several runs and rowing sessions on his home ground. Courage is an important ingredient in the make-up of any rower who wants to be successful, and Stuart certainly has an ample supply of that. Ten days ago he won the maiden sculls at the provincial championships by a foot from Sam Le Compte, expending his last resources of energy in a tre-

mendous final spurt; after the race he was physically sick.

Stuart, a member of the Avon club, has the benefit of the expertise and experience of the well-known Canterbury oarsman, Bernie Reid, in his bid to “make the finals” of the maiden sculls in the nationals, which begin at Waihola on February 24.

His task will be an extremely difficult one as 35 rowers, including some from the strong Auckland University, West End, and Whakatane clubs, have entered. However, Reid believes that Stuart should make the first three and might even win. It is no mere coincidence that Reid, the last Canterbury rower to take a national sculling title — he won the junior event on the Wanganui River in 1958 — is Stuart’s coach. Reid believes that sculling is becoming a “dying art” both in this province and in the rest of the country, and he is doing his best to restore it to its former prominence. If Stuart can return home from Waihola with a national title, considerable interest could be generated in this type of sculling among young Canterbury rowers, he says. Two years ago Reid had another very promising protege, Dave Husband, entered in the national junior singles at Waihola. “He should have won, but failed to get a place as the water was very rough and his boat leaked,” he said. “Very few scullers in Canterbury have had anyone to coach them in recent years and John is

lucky to have the individual attention I’m able to give him,” he said. Naturally enough, Stuart has persevered with the old style of sculling that was the hallmark of his coach, and which is now rarely seen in the country. A sculler using the old style lifts with the shoulder and drives with the legs at the beginning of the stroke, whereas the new style is to put the scull in the water and row straight* through as a leg drive.

Stuart began competitive sculling only this season but has been “puddling around for the fun of it” in old boats at Akaroa for the last few years. One of the boats was an old ‘doubleclinker’ which he puddled around in” for some time.

He plans to stick with the old style as he has “enough trouble with that.” As Reid says, it is very hard to adjust the new

style to the new boats as they are wider spread and the sculls are longer. “I’ve picked up a lot of bad habits when running around by myself as there was nobody to coach sculling at Akaroa, but have started to straighten some of them out,” Stuart said. If he is to perform well at Waihola, Reid says he will have to get his recovery smooth. “In his race at the provincial championships he was using sheer strength instead of trying to scull the boat along.” “His best race strategy will be to regulate his speed so he can watch all the other crews on the water,” Reid said.

While training in Akaroa, Stuart has been using an old maiden boat, belonging to Denis Williams of the Akaroa cluo, which he found strung up on the ceiling in the Akaroa boat shed.

“I plan to keep on with competitive sculling for at least another year or two as I quite enjoy it,” he said.

Next year Stuart, a primary school teacher, might come back to the University of Canterbury to get the three units he needs to finish off a Batchelor of Arts degree, majoring in English. This would be good for his sculling, as any sportsman travelling such long distances to train must soon lose his incentive to develop his standard.

Stuart will have a further chance to improve his sculling generally and his race tactics before the nationals, as he is going down to the lake this week-end for the Otago championships.