Victoria once again claimed top honours in the King’s and Queen’s Cups Interstate Regatta with 13 VIS athletes involved.
The King’s Cup crew (Men’s Eight) included VIS members Josh Dunkley-Smith, William Lockwood, Joshua Booth, Tim Masters, Samuel Hookway and coxswain David Webster. The Victorian team claimed victory in a time of 5.24.36, 3.6 seconds ahead of New South Wales.
Ahead of receiving the King’s Cup from His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d), Governor of New South Wales, Dunkley-Smith said “We had great guys in the crew, and we had a good plan. We kept it simple, had a strong plan, and nailed it in every training session so that we could nail it in the race.”
Meanwhile the Queen’s Cup (Women’s Eight) crew included VIS members Charlotte Sutherland, Lucy Stephan, Katrina Bateman, Sophie Sutherland, Jessica Morrison, Addy Dunkley-Smith and coxswain Sarah Banting. The girls took line honours in a time of 6.07.90, with Queensland 2.4 seconds behind and New South Wales rounding off the group.
Stephan, who has experienced a win in this event five times, said “The race was tight, but we always had control. We’d had some really strong training rows, and we knew once we had our rhythm we could hold to have control of the race. It is about having the right mentality for the race. You don’t want to be in that boat if it doesn’t win.”
In the National Rowing Championship Josh Booth won the men’s coxless pair and the coxless four with Joshua Dunkley-Smith, in the women’s Lucy Stephan and Charlotte Sutherland won both the coxless pair and coxless four.
