Twizel girls win gold for Sara

by Pat McCord on 2 Apr 2006 Zoe Evans and Caitlin Feasey are the toast of Twizel after winning the gold medal in the girls under-16 double at the Maadi Cup national secondary schools regatta on Lake Ruataniwha yesterday.

It brought to fruition a plan hatched at the start of the season that Evans and Feasey would win and dedicate their efforts to Sara Young.

Young who rowed the Maadi at Karapiro last year making an A final with Evans is in Christchurch suffering from a brain tumour. It was hoped that Young might have been available to be at the presentation in the role of coach, but it was not to be.

The girls left everything they had out on the course. At the conclusion of the race Evans a strong and tough athlete dropped into the arms of her partner. Such was their determination to get to the line first they put everything out of their mind. They put their heart and soul into 2000m of effort stopping only when they heard the buzzer.

The girls were unable to get the boat to the jetty, returning in the rescue boat. ‘I lost it,’ said Evans. ‘I fainted, I don't remember much of the race I just going hard out.’

Feasey knew they had been headed early in the race but she too concentrated on getting the boat to the line. ‘I felt dead,’ said Evans. ‘My technique went out the window.’

This was the first gold medal to be won by the Twizel club. Coaches Dene Madden and Wayne McMillan were in awe of their athletes. ‘This is their third season together,’ said McMillan. ‘It is their second seriously, because you don't achieve much as a novice.’

The girls were rewarded for a lot of hard work. ‘They push us and the boat to the limits,’ said Madden. ‘Their technique is important, but both are strong and have that killer instinct.’

They said with Young very ill the girls planned all season to win this medal and to achieve their goal had been very special.

With Evans leaving, the Twizel Area School, which turned out en masse to support their mates.

Source: www.stuff.co.nz see Timaru Herald and Sport

In a footnote to the above story, Feasey and Evans competed in the U17 Double Sculls event, rowing up an age group, and finished sixth in the A Final.

See earlier story at: www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=22625