Senior Women Go 2 From 2
July 24, 2014
The University of Otago Women’s Senior Rowing Eight has now won two out of three international Universities rowing regattas in China.
Otago won the 2km race in Xinjin City, Sichuan Province on Sunday. Otago won by 9seconds over the Paris 2 University from France, with Tourin University from Italy another 3 seconds back. Yale took 4th place and Xi’an Jiaotong University 5th. Otago led from start to finish with a dominant display over a very highly rated Paris 2 crew. The Otago crew was stroked by the very experienced Holly Greenslade, with her New Zealand Under 21s partner Ruby Tew in seven seat.
Otago has now won the 2nd regatta in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. The city is also known as the Oven of China and it certainly had the oven on high for racing with a temperature reaching in the 40s. The training that the team had done in the Universities Environmental Chamber the week before departing for China certainly paid off, and the use of Ice vests before racing kept the crew cool and calm. The Wuhan regatta was held on the cities East Lake over a 1000m course.
Paris 2 lead out of the start with Tourin in 2nd place and Otago a close 3rd. Otago settled into a long powerful stroke and gradually moved up into first place. Both Paris 2 and Tourin had one final push at Otago with 300m to go, how ever Otago held both crews off and continued to pull away to a clear 1 length – 4 second win. Paris 2 just managed to hold off the Tourn crew taking 2nd place by 1 second. Yale finished 4th 8 seconds behind Otago. Coxswain Hannah kennedy said “The crew responded to every call I made, they rowed extremely well and keep their heads throughout the race.”
The Otago women’s crew has not lost a race in China for the past 2 years. Earlier this year they won the New Zealand Universities Rowing Championships Eights race over 3.2km by a massive 30 secs, a race that Otago has won for the past eight years.
The team has a day off before travelling to Linfen on Friday for the final regatta. The team is hoping Air New Zealand will be lenient with excess baggage as the trophies are slightly on the larger size!
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