University of Otago Rowers Dominate at Aon New Zealand University Rowing Championships

The University of Otago stamped its dominance at the Aon New Zealand University Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha in April, taking out top points in the UTSNZ National Tertiary Championship Series.

The rowing championship was the first event on the 2023 UTSNZ Championship Series calendar which sees the top university teams battling it out for national supremacy across eight different sports between April and September.

After originally being scheduled as a 2-day regatta, an algal bloom and subsequent closure of Lake Hood in Ashburton forced the regatta to move further south, but this did not deter the 323 competitors who took part in an action packed schedule of over 40 races.

Of the 300 plus athletes, it was the University of Otago rowing crews who led the regatta with a strong showing, winning 27 medals in total — 11 gold, 11 silver and five bronze. Dominating the eight and four scene across the grades, this also saw the university successfully defend both the UTSNZ event shield and the Ashes.

The University of Canterbury and University of Waikato, both with strong university rowing programmes, rounded out the top three taking second and third place on the table respectively.

The other major UTSNZ award on offer was the Spirit Award which is voted by the universities at the regatta and presented to the team that displays the qualities of the award criteria which are kotahitanga (togetherness), manaakitanga (respect and care for others), and rangatiratanga (leadership). With their respect and support for all competitors, the University of Waikato crew took out the award at this year's event.

Final UTSNZ placings for the regatta below.

UTSNZ National Tertiary Championship Series Results

Shield

1st - University of Otago

2nd - University of Canterbury

3rd - University of Waikato

4th - Victoria University of Wellington

5th - AUT

6th - Lincoln University

7th - University of Auckland

Spirit

1st - University of Waikato

2nd - Victoria University of Wellington

3rd - AUT

4th - University of Canterbury

5th - Lincoln University

6th - University of Auckland

7th - University of Otago

A full list of all individual races and results can be found at https://rowit.nz/nzuu2023/results

Following the Aon New Zealand University Rowing Championship, Rowing NZ has named a team to tour Australia in July. Further details on the trans-tasman team announcement can be found here.

Event photos available for download from UTSNZ Flickr https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAzxeR