Sacred Heart is going for gold with their new captain
Sacred Heart girls are planning to beat last year’s Maadi results and match their North Island championship tally of three golds.
They say the captain goes down with the ship, but this Sacred Heart rowing captain has no plans on sinking. She’s aiming to lead her team to gold at Maadi.
Claudia Mecchia, 16, has been rowing for almost three years, but was only named captain at the start of this season.
Some of Claudia’s duties are guiding the girls when loading boats, leading training when the coach is not there, and being there for the squad.
Sacred Heart rowing coach, Nick Barton, takes his hat off to Claudia. “It’s pretty hard with the teenage girls, you know what they are like. But she [Claudia] is a great captain, who leads by example.”
Claudia found the girls especially needed her support with Maadi selections when the original squad of 27 was cut to 19.
“Not all of us go to Maadi. So when there’s a cut I’m just there for the girls.”
Dedicated, the girls train 12 times a week, on water and off.
“It’s great discipline, and really good competition,” Claudia says.
She says a big part of that discipline, especially before Maadi, is diet. The girls take in lot of protein and carbs to build up the muscle and strip the fat away.
“We encourage the diet at the start of the season, until our last two weeks before Maadi where we push to get the leanest bodies we can.”
Barton notes Sacred Heart girls won gold medals at the North Island finals with their u17 coxed four and eight, and u18 pairs.
“We will do the best we can at the Maadi. The first challenge is get as many crews through the A final.”
