Nelson rowers brought home a swag of gold from the national rowing championship at Lake Karapiro over the weekend.
Olly Stephens was a big winner, taking home two gold medals, a silver and a national trial on the back of his performance.
Olly won the under 20 mens single race, teamed up with Wade Puklowski to win silver in the senior double and was a part of the Nelson/Marlborough mens 8 that won gold.
Nelson Rowing Club coach Tim Babbage says Olly’s performance wasn’t a surprise to him but it may have been to others. “He was the only guy who medalled in that race who wasn’t in a high performance centre team.”
The mens 8 team also featured Wade, Ryan Flintoff and Jack Castle from Nelson and four Marlborough rowers.
The Nelson club’s third gold came from the women’s under 19 four, featuring Gabby Hannen, Meg Stephens, Sasha Cullum, Eilish Byrne and the cox was Evie Strawbridge.
Two other Nelson rowers also won gold but were competing out of the New Zealand High Performance centre. Zoe McBride won the light weight single sculls and Sean Ducray, under 20 double.
Tim says he was happy with the overall performance. “They performed well and it was pretty good overall. I was hoping for another gold to be fair, but that water on Friday made it a bit of a lottery, unfortunately.”
