Few overseas crews contest rowing

Press, 24 October 1978, Page 6

Few overseas crews contest rowing

From TIM DUNBAR Overseas crews largely failed to show their hands in the preworld rowing championships regatta on Lake Karapiro yesterday. Although races were held m i most events over both 1000 m and 2000 m quite a number were contested purely by New Zealand I crews. The powerful East Germans ' were off to Taupo tor the. day (and the only members of the i Eastern bloc represented was the ! Soviet Union, whose women’s i eight beat New Zealand by a very convincing lOsec margin, j As well, in such races it is often hard to tell how hard various crews go over the full distance with little at stake arid in any case the head-wind conditions did not make for fast times. . t

One New Zealand crew which did relish the “competition” was the relatively light c'oxless four of Sam Le Compte (stroke). Tony Brook, Robbie Robinson and" Steve Donaldson. According to Le Compte. the combination did not really know where it stood in relation to the overseas crews and beating Switzerland and the Netherlands quite clearly by 2.665ec and l6.7sec respectively — albeit over 1000 m — was “a bit of a boost.” Unfortunately the Netherlands pulled out of the longer race in the afternoon and the New Zea land four just rowed over the course on its own. In the last race of the day the New Zealand eight gave the squad (and the Waikato eight) a 15sec start, caught it just before the 1000 mark and its over all time of 6min 18.2 sec was 28.555ec faster than the quad. Harry Mahon, coach of the eight, found the performance quite satisfactory in the conditions. Normally a top quad would get closer to a good eight than this

but. the conditions affected the smaller boat more and it was blown about a bit over the third 500 m. The crew had the satisfaction earlier of beating a NewZealand combination which comprised the double, the single sculler (John Alexander) and Tony Hurt by more than 4sec. The Argentinian single sculler, Ricardo Ibarra, looked at least a potential finalist when he beat Alexander by a length over 1000 m. Alexander, though, had a taste of victory later when he wiped the United States sculler by 24sec in the longer race, which Ibarra did not contest. Rather disappointing was Peter Irvine’s coxed four, which was troubled by the New Zealand reserves in winning a 1000 m race and then seemed to lack the necessary pace over 2000 m as it was well beaten by the United States.

If competition was a bit lacking for New Zealand —, while many of the international regattas at Lucerne or Penrith — the exercise was still certainly worthwhile. Systems which will be used in the world >championships from November 1 to 5 all had an airing. With the opening ceremony only eight days away most facilities are already operating and the general complex has changed out of sight since the nationals were raced there in March. One addition is a number of quite large advertising signs put up by sponsors which blot out a little of the landscape on the far side of the lake opposite the big grandstand. Tire interesting Chinese contingent of nine men and six women was due to arrive in New Zealand yesterday morning but did not make an appearance on the lake. Today the teams from Hungary, Australia, Britain and Yugoslavia should arrive to all but complete the list of 28 coun-

tries expected. Austria. Italy I and Rumania will be the lasi tc I arrive. It is likely that the first training sessions of the eights tron* Britain and Australia will b< viewed with interest as the. shared honours in the New Sou.' Wales regatta at Penrith on Octo ber 14 and 15. Results:— MEN 1000 metres ! Coxed fours. — New Zea i land No. 1, 3:29, 1; New Zealant! i No. 2. 3:31.64, 2; New Zealar.c j No. 3, 3:42.33, 3. Double sculls.—New Zealand. 3:27.98, 1; U.S.A., 3:28.80, 2. Coxless pairs.—lreland. 3:40.39 I; Netherlands, 3:44.15. 2; Norti j Shore, 4:44.13, 3. Single sculls. — Argentina 3:38.40, 1; New Zealand, 3:41.20 2; Switzerland, 3:43.80. 3. Coxed pairs.—U.S.A., 3:55.46, 1 Ireland. 3:56.6, 2; Waikato 4:19.23, 3. Coxless tours.—New Zealand 3:12.8. 1; Switzerland, 3:15.46. 2 Netherlands. 3:19.52, 3. Quadruple sculls.—New Zea land No. 1. 3:9.8, 1; New Zealan No. 2. 3:13.95. 2. Eights.—New Zealand, 3:5.16 1; Waikato. 3:17.32, 2. 2000 metres Coxed fours.—U.S.A., 7:20.4? 1; New Zealand No. 1. 7:25.5, 2 New Zealand No. 2. 7:43.73. 3. Coxless pairs.—U.S.A., 7:51.19 1; Netherlands, 8:36.93. 2. Single sculls. —New Zealand No 1. 8:1.15. 1; U.S.A.. 8:24.49. 2 New Zealand No, 2, 8.26.30, 3. Coxed pair.—New Zealand 7:18.03, 1. Eights.—New Zealand, 6:18.2, 1; New Zealand quad 6:46.75. 2: Waikato 6:5*1 •<•*. 3 WOMEN 1000 metres Coxed fours. — Netherlands. 3:51.44. 1; New Zealand, 3:53.32 2. Coxless pairs.—Netherlands J, New Zealand 2. Eights.—Russia. 3:25.92, 1; Neu Zealand. 3:35.91. 2.