Kate Haines
Kate Haines started rowing for Auckland Diocesan School for Girls in 2013 where she won multiple Maadi Cup medals, including the Girls U18 8+ Levin Jubilee Cup twice. She was selected into the New Zealand Junior Women’s Coxless Four in 2016 when she was in year 12 at school (the same year she won the Dawn Cup), where then she went on and placed 6th in Rotterdam, Netherlands at the 2016 Junior World Rowing Championships. The following year in 2017 she competed in the Junior Women’s Four again and gained 6th in Lithuania. After Kate aged out of school rowing and U19’s, she advanced into the U23 team in 2018 and gained 5th at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland. Kate got back to New Zealand after her U23 campaign and filled in for the Canadian Women’s U21 Squad that were racing on Lake Karapiro for the Trans-Tasman Series 2 - being undefeated! Kate has also been involved in the Auckland RPC and Waikato RPC programs, where she was able to perform and succeed domestically during some summer and winter seasons.
In 2019, Kate unfortunately was unable to race due to injury, then the following two years of Kate's rowing career were affected by Covid. Meaning she hadn’t been able to race internationally for three years. However, she continued training hard at Lake Karapiro, and in 2022, Kate made the Elite World Cup team. At the 2022 World Rowing Cup II in Poznan, Poland the Women's Quad of Kate, Georgia Nugent-O'Leary, Kristen Froude and Stella Clayton-Greene built on their performances earlier in the week and pulled out a solid performance in the third 500m of their race. The Kiwis finished in second place behind Poland in their B Final. Then at Henley Royal Regatta and World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland - the crew experienced some tough racing and crew changes, but managed to get a win in the B Final in Lucerne. The 2022 World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic showed the true strength of the Women’s Quad competition, with Kate and her crew coming away with 4th in the B-Final and some valuable international racing experience.
This year, Kate won her first Red coat at the 2023 NZ Rowing Championship in the Women’s Premier Quad. Following on from this success, Kate has been named in the 2023 Elite Women’s Double with partner, Brooke Francis. The 2023 World Rowing Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland - saw Kate team up with Laura Glen in one of the NZ Elite Women's Doubles claiming 16th overall.
Kate is currently studying towards her Bachelor of Business in Accounting through Massey University and also volunteers at Dress for Success an organisation in Hamilton.
A goal for Kate in the future is to follow in the footsteps of some of the other past NZ Elite Athletes (ex-flatmate Grace Prendergast and teammate Ruby Tew) and attend the prestigious Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, where her father also studied. She would like to complete postgraduate study and race in the traditional and world-renowned Cambridge vs Oxford Boat Race.
If you see Kate around, it will be hard to miss her without a smile on her face!