Rangiora set for finals

Rangiora High was in a good position as racing finished yesterday.

Alice Pallister and Rose McEwan had made the A finals in the doubles and coxless pair, with McEwan also in contention for the gold in the singles.

Josh Sims and George Howat missed out on the doubles A final by less than second, but Howat was through in the singles.

It’s all mostly going to plan.

Coach Armin Svoboda said the results so far have been pretty much what he expected. He said the team had been hoping for better, but he was more than pleased considering the level of this year’s competition.

“There’s a lot of really strong crews and individuals. You’re tending to get all the people who are aspiring to national representation. So the level of competition is pretty deep, that’s for sure,” Svoboda said.

At this point in the regattam strategy goes out the window.

“The only strategy you can have now is to row like hell,” said Svoboda.

It’s only the best rowing in the semis and finals, and on top of that a week of racing is starting to take a toll.

“You definitely feel the races pile up, and the guys just seem to be getting bigger and bigger,” Howat said.

It doesn’t help the nerves that parents and grandparents are turning up on the sidelines.

They’ve come all the way from Rangiora, and the team wants to do well in front of them, although Sim wishes they’d stop sending him texts about the other teams the night before – it’s bad for his nerves.

“It’s always ‘such and such has qualified so bring your A game’, and I’m like ‘don’t tell me that’,” he said

The team’s families are all there cheering them on, but it seems McEwan’s grandmother steps it up a couple of notches.

McEwan said she was always down front, green shirt, green wig, green hat, jumping around and yelling her head off.

“She’s pretty crazy. She’s a hardcore Rose supporter,” Sims said.