The 2014 ACT Championship regatta was held over the weekend in near perfect conditions for rowing on both days. As the visiting team from St Augustines (Sydney) observed “This is so much better than rowing on Hen and Chicken Bay in Sydney Harbour”. The Weston Park regatta site was able to accommodate the large number of visiting and local crews, their boats, trailers and tents, and provide a friendly village type atmosphere for spectators and competitors alike.

Highlights from the regatta included wins in the senior sculls for current National team members Keiran Kobelke (Mosman, NSW) and Hannah Every-Hall (Dutton Park, QLD) in the respective Men’s and Women’s single sculls races. These two scullers will represent Australia at the World Cup regatta in Penrith at the end of March and were fine tuning their race plans in Canberra. Best of the local scullers in these Championships were Nick Barnier (Canberra) and Cara Grzeskowiak (Capital Lakes). Barnier was only 7.3 seconds behind Kobelke indicating that he is overcoming his recent injury plagued seasons, and will have a good National regatta. The 18 year old Grzeskowiak has made rapid progress through the ranks of local scullers, and in coming second, beat several past winners of this Championship as well as recent Australian junior representatives. She has excellent prospects in the Australian Championships later this month.

In the Women’s Eight Championships, a rejuvenated ANU eight stoked by Jacqui Williams powered away from the start and were in command of the race throughout winning by 13.8 s from the best of the local school crews from CGGS. Third place went to Capital Lakes reflecting the vast improvement of the performance of this community club in recent Seasons.

The final race at the Championships was the Men’s eights, and it provided superb racing between Canberra Rowing Club (stroked by Matt McCormack) and Black Mountain Rowing Club stroked by Luke Letcher. These two crews swapped the lead in the early stages of the race with no crew establishing dominance over the other. In the middle stages of the race Canberra established a slight lead, but this was always less than a length, and as the finish approached Black Mountain wound up a high rating sprint. Canberra Rowing Club held on to win by by 0.43s, holding off Black Mountain’s explosive finish. Third placed were Canberra Grammar, 15.7s back. A great race to conclude the Championship Regatta in 2014.