New Club Flag
Members will have noticed that our Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club flag has become somewhat worn and faded after 35 years of faithful service. A new flag has been produced by local Whanganui company Display Associates, which will feature on flagpole in future. The Club is indebted to Life Member Ewen Noble who has donated the cost of our new standard.
Tokyo Olympics July 2021
After what seems to have been an interminable delay, our four AWRC 2021 Olympians are less than a month away from wielding their blades in action on Tokyo’s “Sea Forest Waterway”!
This will be the third Olympics for Chris Harris, the second for Kerri Gowler and a first opportunity at Olympic glory for Jackie Gowler and Georgia Nugent- O’Leary. The Aramoho Whanganui Rowing Club certainly wishes them every success in their quest for medals.
NZ Rowing’s outstanding Hamish Bond has been given the honour of being joint flag bearer for the NZ Olympic Team, jointly with Black Ferns Captain, Sarah Hirini.
Whanganui Chronicle Newspaper devoted the whole back page of a recent Saturday edition to these homegrown athletes who, as well as kayaker Max Brown, commenced their careers on the Whanganui River.
Our tech-savvy Maddie Powers has placed the full article on the AWRC website for those who may not receive this publication.
Thirsty Thursdays Visitors
Our fortnightly get-togethers continue to attract some interesting visitors! Assuming a jaunty pose, 1972 NZ Eight Olympic Gold Medallist Wybo Veldman is pictured with Tony Upchurch, Mike Cocker and Lynette Sanders. Wybo wore the Black Fern Singlet from 1967 until 1973 and won 21 Champion “Red Coat” Titles with the Whakatane Club in his distinguished career.
Also pictured is Neil Callagher with wife Sarah. Neil was particularly interested in the history of the Aramoho Boating Club as his father, the late Stan, was a coxswain with West End, and often spoke of the great rivalry West End had with Aramoho in the 1950’s. West End, with Stan coxing, won the Boss Rooster in 1954 and this crew represented New Zealand later that year at the Empire Games in Vancouver, as was the custom at that time.
Pontoon Rejuvenation
The main pontoon has been removed recently from the river to enable some leak repair work and repainting to be carried out. Jeremy Emmett, from Emmetts Civil Construction & Crane Services. has arranged for his company to lift the pontoon out of the water, and their
services are gratefully acknowledged. While our second pontoon is too small launching eights, all other skiffs can utilise our rescue boat pontoon. which is enabling winter training to continue.
RIP
Wayne “Alfie” Holland, passed away recently in Perth. Australia. Alf was a more than useful oarsman in the mid -late 1960’s with the Aramoho Boating Club, and later tried his hand at coaching, successfully coaching a Coxed Light Weight Four, which won the National Title at the NZ Rowing Championships in 1972 at Wanganui. Members from that era will remember his wife Chrissie, and the Club extends its condolences to her as well as children Michelle, Richie and Dean and their respective partners.
Winter Series 6km Race
The Whanganui Rowing Association conducted the second Winter Series Race
on 13 June.
With 25 entries starting, including 5 waka ama and 3 kayakers, and 17 rowing boats, the winners were (again!) Richard Brock and Trevor Rush from AWRC. Racing as a Masters H Men's Coxless Pair and with a time 27 minutes 2 seconds, this gave them an overall prognostic score of 88.04%
Thanks to...
To our “Pontoon Team” – for time-consuming work to clean and repair.
To our “Grant Application Ladies” (Barb and Annie) – also for their time in making recent submissions.
To Tom Monaghan and Garth Hammond – who made use of a scissor lift recently to clean our high gutters on our Club House.
Coming Up
Saturday 2 to 4 July - New Zealand Under 21 and Juniors will be training from the Aramoho
Saturday 11 July - Whanganui Rowing Association Winter Series 7km. AWRC is the host
Club for After Match Function.
Wednesday 25 August - AGM – Mark your calendars now!
Quote of the Month
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." (African Proverb)
Have a good photo we should share with others?
We are always on the hunt for photos. If you have one that you want to feature in an upcoming newsletter, send it to awrowing@gmail.com.
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