Rockhampton Fitzroy Sprint Regatta
On Saturday, our small but talented rowing team participated in the 2022 Rockhampton Fitzroy Sprint Regatta.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed, Ella, Ellexis, Chloe, Ellie, and Calli arrived at 6.00am in the thick fog to start setting up their boats for the day. For Ellexis and Ella, this was their first ever regatta and the nerves were setting in all round.
After a few team photos and a warm-up on the rowing machines, Calli was up first. Now this was an extremely impressive race as Calli was the only girl to compete in the race of six and was rowing against senior boys. What makes it even more impressive is that Calli, a Year 10 girl competing against Year 11 and 12 boys, came 5th in a very close race. She is looking in good stead as she works towards her goal of rowing at Nationals this year.
Ellie had an impressive row in her first race placing 4th in the Division 3 Open Girls’ Single Skull, while Calli back in her own division placed 2nd in Opens Girls’ Division 1 Single Skull. They were expected to be a strong double pairing, however, the field was very competitive leaving Calli and Ellie to finish 6th in the Open Girls’ Double Skull.
Now it was our novice rowers turn to get their first attempt at race conditions. Ella and Ellexis with two Emmaus girls raced in a combined school’s team and placed 3rd in their Novice Quad Skull with Ellie leading the team as their cox. After their successful taste of racing, Ella and Ellexis paired up to finish 4th in the Novice Double Skull.
While Chloe didn’t race for the day, she was the real MVP. Chloe spent all day helping everyone prepare their boats and pack up after each event, which is a huge workload and I know her help was greatly appreciated by all. Thank you to Michelle McRae for her work volunteering for RGGS to ensure the day ran smoothly.
While there were only five girls available on Saturday, our rowing program has reached full capacity of eight rowers for this year, which is a big improvement on last year. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any more rowers this year due to limited numbers with our coach, however, we are running a ‘Learn to Row’ program on water in Term 4 for anyone else that is keen to take up rowing for 2023. I will send out expressions of interest for this program towards the end of Term 3 to all secondary students.
Greta Doherty
Director of Sport