Tiny Waitara club makes waves at rowing nationals

Waitara is a town more associated with rugby league stars such as Howie Tamati and Tony Kemp than with elite rowing, but the local Clifton Rowing Club is celebrating its best-ever performance at the recent national championships.

Rowers from the Taranaki club secured four gold and two bronze medals at the Lake Karāpiro event, finishing fourth overall.

The Clifton Rowing Club is tucked away close to the town bridge in Waitara.

During the season - and when the tide co-operates - rowers can be found straining on their oars along a stretch of the awa most days.

Club president Gus Berghan said Clifton - which had just 50 members - had a long history.

"Two clubs used to be on the river Tikorangi and Waitara and then they wouldn't let them row on Sundays because of the religious beliefs and a few of the freezing works guys said that's our only day off, so they started Clifton Rowing Club and here we are 136 years later, since 1888."

He said beyond the hard work of the athletes, coaches and administrators, Clifton's family vibe was the secret to this season's success.

"When I ask my boys, they say it's their mates rowing as well. It's when they get off the water and the activities they are doing there as well.

"So yeah, what they call culture, and you know I'm not a big one about holding hands and dancing around or anything for social stuff, but there's enough going on you know."

The club's star-turn 23-year-old builder Liam Cox - who won gold in the men's coxless four, double and single sculls - was taking a well-earned rest when RNZ visited.

But 17-year-old Bella Neal - who won gold in the women's novice double sculls with Isla Robinson - was busy preparing for the Maadi Cup.

She was still processing her club nationals final.

"When it came to our final and we were like 'okay we've got three Clifton crews in', which was quite cool because they go across the line and say Clifton, Avon, Clifton and we had three.

"So, it was pretty cool having three crews from little Waitara and then ended up racing with our friends either side of us and then we ended up coming first, which was crazy."

Bella - whose sister Madison had been selected for the NZ U21 team - believed Clifton's size was its strength.

"You see all those other clubs and they've got millions of people, like 400 people, but I like how small Clifton is, like, you actually know everyone and get to know every individual person.

"And the coaches are cool. Love the coaches. They make it fun and interesting each session."

Jasper Sullivan Ussher was part of the bronze medal-winning novice men's double sculls combination. He had someone close to home to thank for getting into the sport.

"My mum made me, she was like 'you should go try rowing' and I was like 'I don't really want to' and she was like 'oh, just go and try it once', I was like 'okay' and then I sort of started liking it."

The 16-year-old reckoned he knew Clifton's magic ingredient.

"Probably the coaches. They're real good. They put in like heaps of hours and stuff and also like the people who are willing to show up pretty much everyday and like work."

The training regime was not for the faint-hearted.

"Monday to Thursday we train and we have Friday off and then Saturday and Sunday we train as well."

Much of the training advice at Clifton was given from the riverbank.

Former New Zealand representative Jason Williams was on the megaphone.

"We do quite a lot of the bank as we've only got a stretch of water that we train on of about 1300 metres.

"So, without putting the coaching boats on - we've have those as well - but it disrupts the water and the boats because we've got so many boats going each way, so we do heaps off the banks with megaphones."

Some of the advice was quite specific.

"We've just looking for technique things that they need to work on and just trying to improve them the connection how they're putting the blades in and how they're working. Rowing is very technical."

Williams reckoned this year's success had been coming for some time.

"Our results were from the hard work from the last three years and last year we did really well as well and our guys who performed really well this year were just off the pace last year, and this year they've done the hard work over the winter and did a lot more training and were a lot more determined to do well.

"So, yeah it's definitely been building for the last few years."

Meanwhile, Gus Berghan said emotions were running high on finals day.

"We had some of the older supporters up there and they were in tears in front of these guys and I just had to explain it was proud for us when we've rowed for the club and we've supported the club to see those results. Proud for us and really heartfelt as you get older and, yeah, it means a hell of a lot."

The club's focus now switched preparing rowers for next month's New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships, otherwise known as the Maadi Cup.