1992 Trans Tasman Juniors Regattas– Lake Ruataniwha NZ

The men’s junior eight hailed from Newington College Sydney and raced very well. The other outstanding crew was the men’s double scull which was subsequently selected to represent Australia at the World Junior Championships later in 1992. Australia won eleven of the twelve races to again win the City of Devonport Trophy.

The following report from team manager Graeme Boykett appeared in the Australian Rowing magazine:

The team met at Sydney Airport on April 22, having come from QLD, SA, NSW and Victoria comprising a men's eight (Newington College),m en's double scull (Brisbane and Sydney), women's four without cox double scull (SA), plus a squad from the SA Sports Institute.

After a good flight to Christchurch a bus transported us to Twizel, about 3 1/2 hours drive south.

The NZRA did a good job in providing similar boats for the Australian and NZ teams, but unfortunately the quality of the SA boats were not the same. When you find out there are only six double sculls/coxless pairs in NZ South Island you realise how fortunate we are in Australia with our supply of boats.

Thursday and Friday were spent rigging the boats, making adjustments and learning about the course. Lake Ruataniwha is part of the NZ Hydro Electric scheme and as a result the water is always moving from the finish to the start during training.

Normally the water would be shut off for the racing but due to the increased demand for electricity by the North Island to watch NZ America's Cup on TV, the water continued all the time we were there.

We were fortunate that we did not have any of the poor weather the area is famed for and just to prove it was warm Simon Gillett wore shorts all the time (it was 8 degrees). The course is a fully buoyed Albans system and each crew had its own lane, with the Australian and NZ crews in the centre. Saturday's racing commenced with the womens four and it was a terrific race with NZ leading all the way, to win by .75 seconds. Our girls benefited greatly from that race. Simon Gillett was sure they could and would do better in following races.

The men's double of Tim Kent (Brisbane) and Sinclair Taylor (Sydney), coached by Ted Egerton (Brisbane) led from the start and just steadily increased their lead and recorded a very good win by six lengths to NZ. Also in this race were two crews from the. SASI, David Collingwood, David Rose and Shaun Molesly, Stefan Karalus and a NZ number two crew.

The women's double of Loretta Talty and Marni Boylan-Sugg, coached by Barbara Gillett led the two NZ crews from the start and won in a good style by 4 seconds.

In the men's eight Australia were represented by Newington College, fresh from winning the NSW schools Head of the River, with two boys from the 1991 Australian crew, Matthew Long and Ben Nelson.

NZ had two eights which were both composite crews and contained some very big boys. Australia led from the start, rowing very steadily, increased their lead throughout the race to record a good win.

At the end of the first day's racing Australia led NZ by 7 points to 5 to retain the City of Devonport Trophy.

Sunday was a "lay day", with Monday a little more training before more races on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday's races saw the mens double improve on the Saturday performance and win by a very large margin. The womens double and the mens eight raced up to [heir high standard and won well in both cases.

Wednesdays races were approached a little more light-heartedly because NZ could not win the City of Devonport Trophy, but the crews were all determined to keep their winning record intact, which they did with some very impressive rowing and left no doubt in the minds of the NZ crews and coaches as to who were the best crews. The efforts of the NZRA to give all the national competitors similar boats was appreciated and certainly made for even racing.

The team acquitted itself very well and it was gratifying the men's double scull gained representation at the World Junior Championships in Montreal.