Two ex-Wakatipu High and Whakatipu Rowing Club old boys have been selected to represent New Zealand in their respective age groups at the world rowing champs in Toronto, Canada, in August.
Jack Pearson, 20, has been selected alongside Dunstan Arm teammate Angus Kenny for the under-23 quad — last year he made the NZ U21 team.
And Marley King Smith, 18, has been selected for the second year running for the U19 team in a double scull.
The Dunstan Arm Rowing Club teammates flatted together over summer in Alexandra and trained under respected head coach Simon Smith.
At the national rowing champs in February, on Cambridge’s Lake Karapiro, the pair remarkably medalled in every event they entered.
Pearson, who still calls Queenstown home and was at Wakatipu High till Year 11, won two golds and three bronzes, and Marley, who finished
Wakatipu High last year, won two golds, one silver and one bronze — a rare feat for someone so young.
Their Dunstan Arm quad won gold in the men’s senior division then backed that up with bronze in the men’s premier quad.
They were then selected to trial for the honour of wearing the silver fern in Canada, and, having been chosen, will be training at Lake Karapiro till they leave.
Marley — who’s accepted a four-year rowing scholarship from Seattle’s University of Washington, in the United States, starting this September — last year won the Central Otago young sportsman of the year award, and for this year’s awards, being held in Wānaka tonight, Pearson’s been nominated for senior sportsman of the year.
Their Dunstan Arm quad’s also a team of the year contender.
