Sculling battle heats up as Drysdale and Waddell sail through the heats

New Zealand’s top single scullers all made it through to the next round of the Premier Single Sculls at the BankLink New Zealand Rowing Championships at Lake Ruantaniwha this evening.

Mahé Drysdale, Joseph Sullivan and title holder Rob Waddell – making his first appearance at a regatta this summer – all breezed through their heats as winners and qualified comfortably for the semi final on Thursday. The repechage for the remaining places in the semi finals will be hotly contested, with Nathan Cohen, world champions Peter Taylor, Storm Uru, Graham Oberlin-Brown and Duncan Grant all in contention.

Waddell raced all the way to the line in his heat, striking 33 stroked per minute and clocking 7 minutes and 5 seconds. Drysdale looked the more relaxed, cruising home in his heat at a lower stroke rate and stopping the clocks at 7 minutes and 7 seconds. The third heat winner, Joseph Sullivan, completed the course in 7 minutes and 15 seconds, but he too was not under threat.

A good battle also looks likely in the Boss Rooster – one of the sport’s oldest contests. Wairau and title holders Waikato traded punches all of the way through the race to decide lanes, clearly testing out what the other crew had. A late substitution in the Waikato crew saw Tyson Williams stepping in for Dane Boswell and the young ex Hamilton Boys Maadi Cup winning stroke looked very racey indeed in the stroke seat with Eric Murray behind him.

The Boss Rooster originated in 1897 when the New Zealand Championship regatta was help on Picton Harbour. Back then the coxed four was the major race on the programme and in that year the two clubs from Otago – the Port Chalmers Rowing Club and the Queens Drive Rowing Club – were fierce rivals. Port Chalmers oarsman Bob Cashman cut the shape of a rooster out of some tin and painted it in the club colours to present to his crew after the race. Unfortunately for them, Queens Drive prevailed and not only won, but daubed their own colours on the rooster. Ever since then it has been competed for by the best four man crews from clubs, with the winners having to repaint the Rooster in their club colours within an hour of their win or forfeit a keg of beer to their rivals.

Round up of results up to 5.00pm - http://www.rowingnz.com/Resource.aspx?ID=2889