By PHILIP CHANDLER
Four former Whakatipu Rowing Club national club champs medal winners were back in the boat at the recent two-day South Island masters regatta — and once again enjoying some success.
Latham Jones, Reid Long, Chris Johnson and Chris Walker, who last rowed together in 2017, are now all 27-plus, and therefore old enough for masters rowing.
At the recent two-day regatta, near Dunedin, the quartet were bolstered by club stalwarts Chris Brooks and Andrew Jolly, Christchurch’s Stuart Wade and Dunedin’s Dave Hannan.
Whakatipu won the coxed eight and coxless four in a tricky 8.5km race in the Taieri Gorge — their eights cox was Charlotte Muir, who as a Wakatipu High rower last year won Maadi Cup’s Simon Briggs Cup for coxes.
Whakatipu crews also won their age groups in the coxed pair, single sculls, coxless pair, coxless four and coxless quad on a 1km course on Lake Waihola.
The highlight was Brooks winning his 55-to-60-year-old age group in the single sculls with the fastest time of the day for that event.
