The Legion of Rowers funded the U19 rowing team to travel to the Junior World rowing Championships. This is a report from the team members

1. New Zealand U19 World Junior Rowing Championship representatives
U19 Worlds

2. Star
ti
ng each morning with a karakia when they arrived at the lake,
the team then split into their crews,
fi
nalising their races plans and
small technical changes to get them racing to the best of their
abili
ti
es. The French organisers and volunteers became fond of our
team, o
ft
en gathering to watch and
fi
lm the team karakia and
Women’s Eight warm up dance.
While we thought the team was tracking well during training back
home, we had no idea how other countries would show up on race
day. The crews raced well and should be proud of their e
ff
orts on the
world stage. While they may be disappointed to not walk away with
silverware, the e
ff
orts they put in, the experiences and memories
they have made over this campaign hopefully made this a valuable
experience for them.
The team were a great bunch of athletes to work with and handled
themselves well overseas, par
ti
cularly as the majority had never
spent this amount of
ti
me away from their families and friends, some
had never been this far overseas before. It was also a great
opportunity for them to be able to race at the 2024 Olympic venue,
and hopefully they’ll be watching on TV next year.
I’d like to thank the Legion of Rowers for their con
ti
nued support in
the
fi
nancial grants for a number of the athletes in the team. While
some of their campaign is subsidised by Rowing New Zealand, there
is s
ti
ll a chunk of money that the athletes and their families need to
put forward in order for them to be able to par
ti
cipate in this
amazing opportunity, and I know that the families are extremely
grateful for this support.
Maxine Hughes
U19 Team Manager

3. Sam Woodgate
I am writing to say thank you for the generous grant the Legion of
Rowers awarded me to help with my travel expenses to Paris. This
was an amazing experience...
This trip was truly special because of the people I was surrounded by.
These guys and girls are now some of my best mates and now that I
am back home, I am missing them. We explored together with trips to
the supersized malls to get pre race food and tasted different foods,
took photos under the massive Eiffel Tower with berets on our heads
and walked through the countryside with the 8. These memories I will
enjoy looking back on for a long time. Although it was a lot to take in,
and there was a lot of travelling, my trip to Paris with the Junior squad
has opened my eyes to the opportunities rowing has to offer. Getting to
compete at top levels of sport while exploring interesting places and
meeting great people is something I hope to experience again.
Thank you again for your support.

4. Vaires sur Marne was about a 20-30 minute train ride outside the heart of Paris. At the
halfway point we had a well
earned day off which was spent doing more exercise (I must say out of all the days this
is the day I was most
exhausted) as we spent the day
walking and sightseeing in Paris which I think for many was the highlight of the trip.
As racing was approaching both nerves and excitement were starting to increase, but
before the first day of
competition an announcement was made to abandon racing on day one which
compressed racing.
In the heat of the mens eight we had Italy, USA, Romania which we expected to be
fierce competition and that is what
we got. Out of the start both Romania and Italy came out flying but we stuck to our guns
and slowly crept ahead which
we held for the rest of the way and fending off the fast finishing Romanians to hold on to
a small quarter-length victory
sending us straight through to the A final.
The final started with the crews leaping out to gain the early lead which went to Great
Britain (the eventual winners)
followed by Germany, Romania and unfortunately these are how the places ended up at
the finish. The race was fast
and intense with no one willing to give an inch to the other crews, we made a last ditch
effort to claw our way back
through the Romanians but this time it was them who held on to the lead to snatch the
medal.
Matthew Glen

5. Alice Wallis
To be given the opportunity to represent New Zealand again in
rowing was a surreal experience. It was even cooler to think
that I was competing at the 2024 Olympic rowing venue.
Even though the weather wasn’t the European summer I was
expecting. The rowing, the people, and the sightseeing made
up for it.
The team was lucky enough to get a day off training and travel
to the centre of Paris to look at some famous sights, such as
the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. I also met some
really cool people from Germany, France, and Italy, whom I still
keep in touch with.
The whole racing experience gave me an idea of what
international racing is like, and I love it. All the different
languages the coxes were saying to their crew made them
crazy to be around.
Overall, I am very grateful to have met such an amazing group
of girls in the women's eight and can't wait to see what each of
them achieves in their future years.

6. To say that in my
fi
nal year of school I have spent 9 weeks living with some of my best friends,
and travelled halfway across the world alongside these friends
while competing on the world stage doing the sport that I love is something that I am going to
treasure forever. With countless trips to the supermarkets trying to
fi
gure out what it was we were
buying, bus rides blasting our music, bomb competitions in the hotel pool, playing cards in hotel
rooms and making up dances before our rows- our trip, while its purpose was for the rowing, was
full of fun outside of it.
When racing came around the excitement around the boat park picked up rapidly and with more
teams arriving our tight knit team became even closer as we realised how little time we had left
together. Lining up and hearing the starters calling out “New Zealand” for the
fi
rst %me gave me
a sense of pride knowing
we were representing out country, it was extremely exciting pulling on the racing suit for the rst
%me knowing the legacy New Zealand has. While racing itself was nerve racking and stressful,
knowing that as a team we were all backing and proud of one another no matter the result helped
in staying focused on the
racing itself rather than getting caught up in the result. As a returning Junior from last year’s
campaign, I have found this year’s trip very different, having spent
such a long period of %me together enhanced the spirit and environment of the team which
played a large part in the friendships we created together. As a squad we all worked extremely
hard on the water but had the switch to be able to have fun off the water which showed in our
racing over the regatta.
I would like to say a huge thank you for the grant I received for helping to covering the costs of
this campaign, your generosity and consideration of allowing me
to be a recipient of this grant is something that I am extremely grateful and apprecia%ve of. So,
thank you again and hope you have enjoyed hearing about the trip!
Georgie Bethell

7. Nicole Vance
Dear Legions of Rowers,
Being awarded the opportunity to travel the world, while competing in a sport
that I love along with some of my best friends has been one of the most
incredible experiences will I will forever be grateful for. I was lucky enough to
be selected for this campaign for the second year in a row which has further
expanded my knowledge and taught me so much which I will now be able to
take into my everyday life.
On returning to New Zealand I have a greater appreciation of the value in
escaping the cold Winter and spending %me training out in the sun. Even
though Paris didn’t feel like the typical European summer with a few
thunderstorms and lots of rain (even some hail), it was s=till 10 degrees hotter
than in Christchurch, even on a cold day.
Racing at World Champs is such a different and unique experience that not
many people experience, and I loved the opportunity to learn about different
cultures all around the world. Thank you so much for supporting me in order
to participate in this U19 campaign. I have learned and gained so much from
this opportunity and I am so grateful for your generosity in helping me get to
Paris.

8. Nico Daly
When people ask me about my time in Paris, three things come to mind. The rowing itself, food, and the weather.
As I said, the next thing that came to mind was the food. When coming to Paris I was expecting croissants, desserts and other
amazing french food. Don't get me wrong, we did get breakfast. But, we also got served three course meals for lunch and dinner.
Cold pea soup with a hard boiled egg or basically raw meat patties with salad. These are just two examples of the interesting meals
we were served. Followed by a never ending supply of bread, my favourite part.
The rowing part of course makes sense, as that was the very reason we were there in the first place. Having the opportunity to row
on the future olympic course was 100% one of my highlights, as not long from now the very people I look up to will be rowing down
the same race course as me. Racing wise, I had an amazing time. It was my very first international regatta, and it has truly proven to
me that I don't want it to be my last. I used to think Maadi cup racing was hard, and now it almost sounds easy. Racing those other
countries truly helped me learn that representing NZ is a massive step up, but beating other countries is an even bigger one. This is
something I will continue to think about during my next rowing journey.

9. We arrived in Paris about a week out from racing
ready to start some race preparation work on the
course. Everyone was working really well and we
were very optimistic for the racing. About 5 days
after arriving in Paris we went into the city and did
some amazing sight seeing it was a great break
from the training but after that we got straight back
into the work on the Vaires-sur-Marne.
In the mens eight we had out heat of the Thursday,
we were racing Italy, USA, and Romania after a
amazing start we won that race and qualified straight
through to the A Final 2nd fastest. Due to weather
our final was moved from the Sunday to the
Saturday. After a long and tense warm up we were
int he blocks. We had a hard first 1km we had lost to
much time on the leading three but still pushed back
through the second km, we ended up 4th in the
world not exactly what we came to do but still a
achievement we are extremely proud of.
I would like to thank the legion of rowers for the
extremely generous grant I was given it certainly
eased the pressure on my parents a great amount.
Sam Leach