Kinross Wolaroi's Golden Moment

Central Western Daily (Orange), 10/3/10

"It was the best moment of my life."

Those were the words Kinross Wolaroi School's Declan Michell used to describe his team's stunning triumph in the Schoolboy Coxed IV final at the Australian Rowing Championships at Nagambie, Victoria on Sunday.

The national title continued Kinross' burgeoning reputation as a rowing powerhouse, with coach Joe Donnelly's troops finishing the week-long event as the most successful NSW school after two silver medals and a bronze on top of the Coxed IV's golden performance.

Michell, Michael Nagy, Matthew Simpson, Daniel Whitehead and cox Kathryn Pasquali led all the way in the 2km event in a performance Michell described as "absolutely faultless".

"We were all so excited, it was the best moment of my life," he said.

"Halfway through the race (I knew we were going to win). We were completely perfect through the water and were flying past the other crews. It was absolutely faultless."

The Kinross crew held a four-second lead at the 1500m mark after sectional 500m times of 1:39.01, 1:45.57 and 1:48.54, before scorching home over the final quarter in 1:43.47 to defeat Canberra Grammar School by three seconds and the Victorian based Xavier College by 5.38 seconds.

Nagy was elated to come away from nationals with a gold medal.

"I'm stoked, I can't believe it," he said.

"We always have a good start and we got off to a good start in the final. We kept pushing and finished off strongly. We've all done so much training. We train every week, so to get the reward for that is great."

The crew backed up its gold with a bronze medal in the under 19s Coxed IV, with Alistair Fleming replacing Pasquali as cox.

Whitehead got Kinross' week off to a great start, winning a silver medal in the under 17 boys' Single Scull final, following on from his gold medal in the same event at the NSW titles in February.

Whitehead's individual effort at Nagambie was even more impressive given nearly all of his training in the lead-up to the event had been focused on the Coxed IV event.

Kinross' outstanding meet was rounded off when Eloise Daniels, Briony Wills, Candice Williams, Harriet Hain and Samantha Gersbach (cox) won a silver medal in the Schoolgirls' Coxed IV event.

The result followed on from the Crina Dihel-coached crew's gold medal effort at the NSW titles in February, an event at which the Kinross club claimed 11 medals.

Thirty-five rowers and coxens from Kinross participated at nationals and along with the four medals won, they qualified for 7 'A' finals, by far the club's best result in its six-year history.

http://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/news/local/sport/general/kinross-rowers-golden-moment/1772572.aspx