Risk and reward on repechage day
It was mostly second-chance racing on the second day of the New Zealand Championships at Lake Ruataniwha.
There are legends and there are living legends.
It’s said that back in the day, the best way to get any distance training at Oamaru Rowing Club was to row in circles. That legend comes out of the days Rusty Robertson was coaching Oamaru when they won the Boss Rooster two years in a row in 1961-2.
They are geographically challenged in their small harbour that’s separated from the rollers out in the Pacific by a breakwater barely 700m away from the launching spot.
Yet still they race hard and race well.
Ivan Docherty is a living legend at the ‘club with not much water’.
“It is what it is and you make the most of it and there's different ways to end up with the same result and we just have to find ours,” says Ivan.
“That's what we've got and that's what we've been given so we work on that.”
They proved if you want it enough, you can get it - winning the repechage of the Men’s Club Quad by a decent margin over two Hamilton crews and a Dunstan boat.
Ivan rowed at the club through the 80s and has been coaching there for the past 12 years.
He’s well known in Oamaru, partly because he coaches from the wharf as his rowers go back and forward.
“I have a loudspeaker and in Oamaru about two k’s up the hill on the cape, people tell me they hear me at night, in the afternoon or in the morning. [I get] the odd comment, ‘Geez you were pretty noisy last night.’”
Everything’s a bit concentrated down on the water. On an average day they get 350m of water before having to turn around. On a good day, it’s 600m. And sometimes Ivan’s trying to manage 10 crews. It must be torturous taking an eight out.
And just to make things more difficult, they can’t row at high tide because they then have to try and launch from a steep rock wall. And it’s worse when there’s a swell.
We know rowing is already good at teaching resilience. At Oamaru, it’s next level.
The bird’s eye view Ivan Docherty coaches from on the wharf at Oamaru.
Outcome: High risk, high reward
Learning how to race, Part 1
The first heat of the Men’s Senior Quad would only allow two crews through the door to the final. No one’s keen on a repechage.
Avon 1 were going okay on the inside lane, Auckland seemed good for second. Until they nearly got rowed down by Aramoho-Whanganui. Auckland switched into fright mode and just scrambled through with 0.01 to spare.
The barest possible margin in sport, Auckland’s Senior Quad just squeeze straight into the final by 0.01s.
I sat down with the Auckland boys for their debrief with master coach Pete Mills. I was wondering what he might want to say to his crew.
“That's the first time we've rolled Aramoho all year,” says Pete. “You certainly ruined Axel's (Axel Dickinson) day, which is always a good day.”
Nothing malevolent. Just a coach blessing his good fortune when it could easily have gone the other way.
“There’s nothing like breaking a coach's heart, right? Especially if it's the opposition’s one.”
The boys went through the prep in detail. The drills they did on the way up and the intention behind it all as well. They talked the race out in detail.
“You created the plan because if you create it, you own it,” says Pete.
They owned and mostly executed it, but got caught sitting too comfortably racing for second against the boat in third.
They figured out some key issues and points for improvement. Someone’s going to have to take more ownership for the last few hundred of the final on Friday.
That’s going to be Freddie Eadie, the guy who was on the wrong side of a 0.03s gap of winning the gold medal in the Club Four at Nationals last year.
With some calm analysis from five people trying to be their best, Pete Mills’ crew know how they can go from racing for second to racing for first.
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
Coach Pete Mills on the debrief with his Auckland Senior Quad, from left Freddie Eadie, Ryan Gass, Jack Macdonald and Harry Newbury-Lee. Picture: Andy Hay
Learning how to race, Part 2
Average age: 21, average years rowing: 4.
That’s the crew from Chuo University in Japan who nailed their heat of the Men’s Club Eight to progress to the final.
The Chuo University crew debriefing with “The Boss”, their interpreter Anaya Usui. Picture: Andy Hay
They too were debriefing with their Otago University host Glen Sinclair.
There was a lot of visual demonstration going on and some description from their interpreter Anaya Usui, who the boys call “The Boss.”
They were third last year at University Champs in Japan.
What are they going to do to get into gold medal position this coming September?
Anaya: “The method that we learned in New Zealand, they’re going to bring back to Japan and keep on practising.”
AH: “What’s the secret method then?” The new tin shed at Otago University traps the laughter for a few seconds.
“It’s secret.”
Here's the secret:
“It’s the trip of a lifetime for them,” says Glen, who has been fostering sporting and academic connections between Otago and Japanese Universities for nearly 10 years.
"It’s been in the plans for well over a year, they’ve fundraised to get here, one of the boys was supposed to tell you the family sold their last cow...but they’ve each raised about $6000 each for the trip."
They’re here for just one event as is common in the Japanese rowing scene.
So far so good. 6.20.89 in a borrowed boat, although the choice wasn’t bad.
“I gave them the choice of the Filippi or the Empacher and they chose the Filippi. I reckon it’s because New Zealand won in those in Tokyo. They treat it like gold. It’s washed and dried inside out after every time it touches the water.
“You think our people live rowing...they live on the course at Toda [in Tokyo] where they train...there’s apartments above the boathouse and they’ll train at 4.30 in the morning, jump on the train to go to Uni and come back at night to train again.”
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
The Longest day
It was a day that started and ended with risk and reward for Takapuna Grammar in the Men’s Intermediate Four.
They piled into their heat at 8am, the first race of the day, and ended up in a three-way showdown for a finals spot with Timaru and Aramoho-Whanganui. Just over one second separated them at the finish, Takapuna crossing third.
Takapuna Grammar beginning their longest day, racing in the first race of the day and finishing the last race of the day with a big win. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
It’s a long journey from Takapuna to Twizel.
“They won the North Island champs by seven seconds so we thought why not send them down to Nationals,” says Head Coach Sam Grant. “We’re trying to build them for Maadi next year in the South Island so this was a good opportunity to give them the experience of racing down south. I guess we are always aware that we row as a school and a club and being able to compete well at the Nationals is part of fulfilling that club element.”
Sam says they were a little bit rattled after the heat. He’s up in Auckland looking after the rest of the programme but had a quiet chat with them via video call this afternoon.
At 4.04pm they were at it again in the repechage. The distant travellers from up north blitzed it into a hefty headwind, 15 seconds ahead of the next best boat.
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
Captains’ Call
Captains’ picks come with high risk and high reward. Is your draft crew going to be able to do the business against some fierce club opposition in the Premier Eights.
Outcome: High risk, high reward (a Red Coat).
Here’s the crews:
Draft W Prem 8+
Team Captain: Alana Sherman
Kate Haines, Hannah Matehaere, Emily Gordon, Stevie Mabey, Shannon Cox, Olivia Tattersfield, Jenna-lee Maarkgraff, Cox: Harry Molloy
Draft W Prem 8+
Team Captain: Rebecca Leigh
Ella Cossill, Emma Bagrie, Charlize Tutbury, Amelia Barrell, Erin Ticklepenny
Brooke Pitchford, Lily Curnow, Cox: Annabelle Scott
Draft M Prem 8+
Team Captain: Campbell Crouch
Ben Taylor, Franklin Baron, Charlie Mackintosh, Max Jarvie, Henry Gavin
Ethan Steyn, Alex Fletcher
Cox: Hamish Toogood
Draft M Prem 8+
Team Captain: Joshua Vodanovich
Lewis Meates, Sam Barnett, George Johnson, Callum Booth, Ryan Gass
Fynn Allison, Liam Cassidy, Cox: Jacob Avery
Draft M 8+
Team Captain: Zackary Rumble
Tadhg Farac, Edwin George, Finn Houghton, Freddie Eadie
Ethan Blight, Jonty Thompson
Jostien Butler, Cox: Timothy Heritage
Draft M Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Ben Mason
Edwin George, Ryan Gass, Matthew King
Draft M Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Liam Cox
Ben Olifiers, Fynn Allison, Clayton Potts
Draft W Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Shannon Cox
Kathryn Glen, Madison Neale, Becky Tuke
Draft W Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Veronica Wall
Hannah Matahaere, Emily Gordon, Olivia Key
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
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Risk and reward on repechage day
It was mostly second-chance racing on the second day of the New Zealand Championships at Lake Ruataniwha.
There are legends and there are living legends.
It’s said that back in the day, the best way to get any distance training at Oamaru Rowing Club was to row in circles. That legend comes out of the days Rusty Robertson was coaching Oamaru when they won the Boss Rooster two years in a row in 1961-2.
They are geographically challenged in their small harbour that’s separated from the rollers out in the Pacific by a breakwater barely 700m away from the launching spot.
Yet still they race hard and race well.
Ivan Docherty is a living legend at the ‘club with not much water’.
“It is what it is and you make the most of it and there's different ways to end up with the same result and we just have to find ours,” says Ivan.
“That's what we've got and that's what we've been given so we work on that.”
They proved if you want it enough, you can get it - winning the repechage of the Men’s Club Quad by a decent margin over two Hamilton crews and a Dunstan boat.
Ivan rowed at the club through the 80s and has been coaching there for the past 12 years.
He’s well known in Oamaru, partly because he coaches from the wharf as his rowers go back and forward.
“I have a loudspeaker and in Oamaru about two k’s up the hill on the cape, people tell me they hear me at night, in the afternoon or in the morning. [I get] the odd comment, ‘Geez you were pretty noisy last night.’”
Everything’s a bit concentrated down on the water. On an average day they get 350m of water before having to turn around. On a good day, it’s 600m. And sometimes Ivan’s trying to manage 10 crews. It must be torturous taking an eight out.
And just to make things more difficult, they can’t row at high tide because they then have to try and launch from a steep rock wall. And it’s worse when there’s a swell.
We know rowing is already good at teaching resilience. At Oamaru, it’s next level.
The bird’s eye view Ivan Docherty coaches from on the wharf at Oamaru.
Outcome: High risk, high reward
Learning how to race, Part 1
The first heat of the Men’s Senior Quad would only allow two crews through the door to the final. No one’s keen on a repechage.
Avon 1 were going okay on the inside lane, Auckland seemed good for second. Until they nearly got rowed down by Aramoho-Whanganui. Auckland switched into fright mode and just scrambled through with 0.01 to spare.
The barest possible margin in sport, Auckland’s Senior Quad just squeeze straight into the final by 0.01s.
I sat down with the Auckland boys for their debrief with master coach Pete Mills. I was wondering what he might want to say to his crew.
“That's the first time we've rolled Aramoho all year,” says Pete. “You certainly ruined Axel's (Axel Dickinson) day, which is always a good day.”
Nothing malevolent. Just a coach blessing his good fortune when it could easily have gone the other way.
“There’s nothing like breaking a coach's heart, right? Especially if it's the opposition’s one.”
The boys went through the prep in detail. The drills they did on the way up and the intention behind it all as well. They talked the race out in detail.
“You created the plan because if you create it, you own it,” says Pete.
They owned and mostly executed it, but got caught sitting too comfortably racing for second against the boat in third.
They figured out some key issues and points for improvement. Someone’s going to have to take more ownership for the last few hundred of the final on Friday.
That’s going to be Freddie Eadie, the guy who was on the wrong side of a 0.03s gap of winning the gold medal in the Club Four at Nationals last year.
With some calm analysis from five people trying to be their best, Pete Mills’ crew know how they can go from racing for second to racing for first.
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
Coach Pete Mills on the debrief with his Auckland Senior Quad, from left Freddie Eadie, Ryan Gass, Jack Macdonald and Harry Newbury-Lee. Picture: Andy Hay
Learning how to race, Part 2
Average age: 21, average years rowing: 4.
That’s the crew from Chuo University in Japan who nailed their heat of the Men’s Club Eight to progress to the final.
The Chuo University crew debriefing with “The Boss”, their interpreter Anaya Usui. Picture: Andy Hay
They too were debriefing with their Otago University host Glen Sinclair.
There was a lot of visual demonstration going on and some description from their interpreter Anaya Usui, who the boys call “The Boss.”
They were third last year at University Champs in Japan.
What are they going to do to get into gold medal position this coming September?
Anaya: “The method that we learned in New Zealand, they’re going to bring back to Japan and keep on practising.”
AH: “What’s the secret method then?” The new tin shed at Otago University traps the laughter for a few seconds.
“It’s secret.”
Here's the secret:
“It’s the trip of a lifetime for them,” says Glen, who has been fostering sporting and academic connections between Otago and Japanese Universities for nearly 10 years.
"It’s been in the plans for well over a year, they’ve fundraised to get here, one of the boys was supposed to tell you the family sold their last cow...but they’ve each raised about $6000 each for the trip."
They’re here for just one event as is common in the Japanese rowing scene.
So far so good. 6.20.89 in a borrowed boat, although the choice wasn’t bad.
“I gave them the choice of the Filippi or the Empacher and they chose the Filippi. I reckon it’s because New Zealand won in those in Tokyo. They treat it like gold. It’s washed and dried inside out after every time it touches the water.
“You think our people live rowing...they live on the course at Toda [in Tokyo] where they train...there’s apartments above the boathouse and they’ll train at 4.30 in the morning, jump on the train to go to Uni and come back at night to train again.”
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
The Longest day
It was a day that started and ended with risk and reward for Takapuna Grammar in the Men’s Intermediate Four.
They piled into their heat at 8am, the first race of the day, and ended up in a three-way showdown for a finals spot with Timaru and Aramoho-Whanganui. Just over one second separated them at the finish, Takapuna crossing third.
Takapuna Grammar beginning their longest day, racing in the first race of the day and finishing the last race of the day with a big win. Photo: Picture Show Ltd
It’s a long journey from Takapuna to Twizel.
“They won the North Island champs by seven seconds so we thought why not send them down to Nationals,” says Head Coach Sam Grant. “We’re trying to build them for Maadi next year in the South Island so this was a good opportunity to give them the experience of racing down south. I guess we are always aware that we row as a school and a club and being able to compete well at the Nationals is part of fulfilling that club element.”
Sam says they were a little bit rattled after the heat. He’s up in Auckland looking after the rest of the programme but had a quiet chat with them via video call this afternoon.
At 4.04pm they were at it again in the repechage. The distant travellers from up north blitzed it into a hefty headwind, 15 seconds ahead of the next best boat.
Outcome: High risk, high reward.
Captains’ Call
Captains’ picks come with high risk and high reward. Is your draft crew going to be able to do the business against some fierce club opposition in the Premier Eights.
Outcome: High risk, high reward (a Red Coat).
Here’s the crews:
Draft W Prem 8+
Team Captain: Alana Sherman
Kate Haines, Hannah Matehaere, Emily Gordon, Stevie Mabey, Shannon Cox, Olivia Tattersfield, Jenna-lee Maarkgraff, Cox: Harry Molloy
Draft W Prem 8+
Team Captain: Rebecca Leigh
Ella Cossill, Emma Bagrie, Charlize Tutbury, Amelia Barrell, Erin Ticklepenny
Brooke Pitchford, Lily Curnow, Cox: Annabelle Scott
Draft M Prem 8+
Team Captain: Campbell Crouch
Ben Taylor, Franklin Baron, Charlie Mackintosh, Max Jarvie, Henry Gavin
Ethan Steyn, Alex Fletcher
Cox: Hamish Toogood
Draft M Prem 8+
Team Captain: Joshua Vodanovich
Lewis Meates, Sam Barnett, George Johnson, Callum Booth, Ryan Gass
Fynn Allison, Liam Cassidy, Cox: Jacob Avery
Draft M 8+
Team Captain: Zackary Rumble
Tadhg Farac, Edwin George, Finn Houghton, Freddie Eadie
Ethan Blight, Jonty Thompson
Jostien Butler, Cox: Timothy Heritage
Draft M Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Ben Mason
Edwin George, Ryan Gass, Matthew King
Draft M Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Liam Cox
Ben Olifiers, Fynn Allison, Clayton Potts
Draft W Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Shannon Cox
Kathryn Glen, Madison Neale, Becky Tuke
Draft W Prem 4X-
Team Captain: Veronica Wall
Hannah Matahaere, Emily Gordon, Olivia Key
Andy Hay
Andy Hay is a freelance producer, writer and rowing coach. He was cox of the world champion New Zealand eight of 1982 and '83. He is NZ Olympian #446.
