NSW Pathways Camp #4

The final Junior Pathway training day of the series hosted by our High Performance Rowing clubs was held at the Sydney University Thyne Reid Boathouse on Sunday 28th January 2018.

It was good to see such a turnout for the day especially with many athletes having raced in the Small Boat Regatta at SIRC the previous day and/or having just returned from their school training camps.

As always there were a few drop outs and a few unexpected extras, but we saw three girls’ eights and two quads along with one boys’ eight and a coxed four get on the water for the first session.

The crews concentrated on drills and skills before lining up side by side for a battle paddle back to the shed. The focus was on maintaining skill with maximum power on the handle.

We were lucky to have RA Pathways Head Coach, Lyall McCarthy, in attendance for the day and he was able to impart his knowledge and passion to both the athletes and coaches.

Breakfast was provided courtesy of parents of SUBC rowers and the BBQing skills of the men’s captain, Marcus Britt.

Olympian rowers from SUBC, Genevieve Horton and Cameron Girdlestone, shared the highs and lows of their rowing career and their pathway from school to where they are now. Gen started rowing at Pymble Ladies College and talked about her journey from winning gold at the Junior World Championships in the coxless pair and silver at the U23 Worlds the following year in the same crew into the senior team and on to the Olympics. She is now a full-time athlete at the Hancock Prospecting Women’s National Training Centre. Cam’s journey started at The Kings School. He was first selected into a Junior coxless four finishing eighth, then two years later in an U23 lightweight coxless four finishing ninth. His next international appearance after a seven-year hiatus saw him in the senior team finishing a devastating fifteenth before finally achieving silver at the 2015 World Championships, followed up with a silver Olympic medal in Rio. He is currently balancing his training with his full-time job as a teacher and will be looking to rejoin the national team next year.

The athletes were followed by SUBC Club Secretary Chris Noel with an entertaining speech on the importance of being a Welshman and the value of an Australian university education.

For most, it was the end of an intense few weeks of rowing so there were reduced numbers for the second row, which gave athletes a chance to row in a different boat class/crew.   

It was a great day with a good atmosphere amongst all the rowers and coaches from across the many schools and clubs.

Rowing NSW would like to thank SUBC Director or Rowing Dustyn Butler and his team of coaches, Don McLachlan, Debbie Fox, Alfie Young, Jack Hanley and Will Raven, for supplying enough boats, oars and coach boats to make the day run flawlessly. Also to captains Marcus Britt and Dyone Bettega along with parents for manning the BBQ and the kitchen and supplying copious amounts of food. And finally, to Wallis Russell, the Undergrad Student Representative on the SUBC Committee, for making up numbers by jumping in the bow seat of a quad.

Thank you to all the other coaches assisting with the day, particularly Ciarán Glynn and Matthias Ungemach for your time in putting crew lists together, and to those that made the long drive from Newcastle and Port Macquarie.

Moving forward from here there will be an Expression of Interest posted on the RNSW website with entry level requirements and campaign details for those wishing to be part of the 2018 NSW Pathways Eights to go through to the Interstate race at the Junior Selection trials in April.