THRILLS FOR CROWD AT SCULLING CONTEST

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 45, 24 February 1936, Page 7

THRILLS FOR CROWD AT SCULLING CONTEST

Skiff Crashes on to Submerged Rock

NEW CHAMPION HAS AMAZING LUCK Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Last Night. Incidents without parallel in New Zealand rowing marked the finish on Saturday afternoon of the champion single sculls contest on the \Korokoro course, when the holder, A. K. G. Jackson (Wanganui Union Rowing Club), lost the title to R. B. Smith (Waitemata Boating Club) by a few feet, when it appeared that a victory for Jackson was certain.

Six competitors started in the race. They were H. J. Luko (Wellington Rowing Club), T. Heggluu (Wairau Rowing Club), P. Abbott (Petone Rowing Club), A. K. G. Jackson (Union), R. B. Smith (Waitemata) and N. Foster (Wanganui Rowing Club). At the mile post of the mile and a-half race, Jackson had secured a comfortable lead from Smith, Abbott being in third position and the rest tailing off. With, about a hundred yards to go, Jackson had a good two lengths’ advantage of Smith. Jackson was rowing well out from the Hutt railway, embankment, Smith being much closer in. When it seemed that nothing could deprive Jackson of the title, Smith quickened his stroke and began to close the gap. A few feet out from the bank and 20 yards from the linishing line, a rock was breaking the surface of the rising tide and between 12 and 15 feet further out from there, was another and a very much larger one standing high out of the water. Smith’s course took him straight for these rocks and it appeared to the spectators that he must hit one or the other. He was rowing furiously in a last minute effort to beat Jackson. Disaster seemed inevitable but just as Smith finished ouo stroke of his sculls thereby bringing them close alongside his boat and the skiff entered the channel formed by the rocks and passed cleanly between them just as he was swinging back for the next stroke. In a moment he had swept over the line, defeating jackson by half a canvas. Meanwhile Abbott was coming up fast on approximately the course Smith had followed but slightly more inshore. It was seen that he was headed straight for a submerged object that Smith had just avoided before his astonishing entry into the channel between the other rocks. The spectators shouted a warning but evidently mistaking the clamour for encouragement, Abbott went on and crashed his boat hard on to the rock which was awash and which jarringly pulled him up short. Luke, coming up behind him, crossed the line into third place. Abbott’s boat had the bottom split for several feet and sank in a few seconds.