Rogers Bussey Lawyers men’s crew and the m5 ladies successfully defended their titles at the 193rd Royal St. John’s Regatta at Quidi Vidi Lake Wednesday.
But unlike previous years, both crews faced stiff competition from a rival boat in their attempt to repeat as champs.
Rogers Bussey rowed the course in nine-minutes and 10.83 seconds, less than five seconds ahead of Toyota Plaza, who finished second.
Close race
“Rowing against a team like Toyota certainly pushed us,” said the boat’s No. 3 oarsman, Chris Neary. “It was certainly the hardest and by far the closest race I’ve been in for the championship, so it makes it that much sweeter.”
The win completes a triple crown for Rogers Bussey, who this year also took the men’s championship at both the Harbour Grace and Placentia regattas.
Crew members include Stroke Brent Hickey, Adam Kavanagh, Ronnie Whitten, Neary, James Cadigan, Craig Whittle, spare Dan Cadigan and coxswain Ben Colbourne, making his Regatta debut as a fixed-seat cox. The team was coached by Ronnie Brennan and Bert Hickey.
Marco, an intermediate crew, was third.
In the ladies’ final, M5 held off fierce competitors in Roebothan McKay and Marshall to claim the championship in a time of four-minutes and 59.28 seconds. Roebothan came in just over two seconds behind at five minutes and 1.93 seconds.
Coxswain Mark Hayward said the team, which chose not to attend regattas in Harbour Grace and Placentia, had one goal in mind all season: to win in St. John’s.
“We knew Roebothan McKay and Marshall were going to be coming after us. We beat them in the first race of the day, which was really close, so we knew we couldn’t slack off. We had to bring our A game (in the final), and that’s what we did,” he added.
Members of the crew are Stroke Ashley Peach, Amanda Hancock, Ann Murrin, Kim Oates, Amanda Ryan, Alyssa Devereaux and spare Hollie Dawson. Mike Power and Bert Hickey were the team’s coaches.
koliver@thetelegram.com
Twitter@KOTelySports
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