The week that was: New Zealand wins at the World Rowing Junior Champs and it's all on in Tokyo!

Rowing

At the conclusion of the 2019 World Rowing Junior Championships, three of New Zealand’s four crews made A Finals, with the women’s quad taking gold. The Women's 4 came 5th and the Men's Quad came 6th.

Women’s Quad (JW4x) - A Final - Gold 

After placing first in their women’s quad heat and A/B semi-final, Eva Hofmans (Bayfield High School), Rebecca Leigh (St Peter's School, Cambridge), Shakira Mirfin (Southland Girls' High School) and Phoebe Trolove (Craighead Diocesan School) were in the lead of the A Final from 1000m and comfortably ahead of Germany in second place. With Germany and Romania in third unable to close the gap, the New Zealand crew crossed the line first and took gold in at time of 06:54.32, 2.39 seconds ahead of Germany, who took silver. Romania took bronze. 

Hofmans, Leigh, Mirfin and Trolove are coached by Hannah Starnes.

“I loved the second 500 meters in our race! We pushed into the lead and held well together. I’m over the moon with the result!” Rebecca Leigh

More at www.rowingnz.kiwi

Sailing - Women's 470 qualify boat for New Zealand for Tokyo Olympic Games

Susannah Pyatt and Brianna Reynolds-Smith knew they were racing well but it still came as a surprise to learn they had qualified the women's 470 for New Zealand for next year's Tokyo Olympic Games.

That's because the pair don't tend to look at results so had little idea how close they were to earning one of the six spots available at these world championships to nations who hadn't already qualified the class for the Games.

In the end, Pyatt and Reynolds-Smith jumped up nine places today to finish 15th overall in the women's fleet. 

"We're really stoked and a little surprised [to qualify the boat] because neither of us follow the results," Pyatt said. "I didn't even know what boats had already qualified so we had no idea until we finished the last race and Brownie (coach Andrew Brown) told us he thought we had done it, so it was a really nice surprise."

It means New Zealand has now qualified for eight of the 10 classes - men's and women's 470, Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 - and it will be up to the New Zealand selectors to decide which classes and sailors to send to the Olympic Games.

Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox took advantage of the drama that unfolded around them at the 470 world championships in Japan to finish second in the medal race and climb up to eighth overall.

Snow-Hansen and Willcox sailed a tidy race to finish second and that, together with disqualifications also handed out to Japan and France, saw them climb two places to finish eighth overall. The result comes on the back of their win at the World Cup Series regatta in Genoa and third-placed finish at the 470 European championships in San Remo.

"We just wanted to go out there and perform as best we could and execute our plan and we did that pretty well today and managed to get second and finish the regatta off in style," Willcox said. "We are happy with that.

"It's been a great season for us this year. To come away with a top eight in Enoshima, we are happy with that, but there are definitely a few areas that we go exposed in here. We are pretty excited to go back home and work on those in our summer time."

Before that, however, the pair will compete along with the rest of the New Zealand team at the upcoming Olympic test event, 'Ready, Steady, Tokyo' which is a dress rehearsal for the Tokyo Games.

Many of the New Zealand Team are already in Enoshima, training ahead of the test event. We were there to catch up with Alex Maloney and Molly Meech

Basketball

The Tall Blacks are itching to get on the court for their two match World Cup warm up series against Japan. The team arrived in Atsugi (south of Tokyo) last Monday and are being hosted by the Atsugi City Council. 

The Tall Blacks have been in an intensive phase of their World Cup buildup, training twice a day since arrival.

The first game of the test series is tonight - Live on Sky Sport

Monday 12 August - 7.55pm Sky Sport 8
Wednesday 14th August - 9.50pm Sky Sport 9

Hockey

Vantage Black Sticks Men’s Coach Darren Smith has named an incredibly strong side for their test series in Tokyo this month against India, Malaysia and Japan in the Ready, Steady Tokyo tournament. There are four players in the team who have played more than 200 times for the Vantage Black Sticks, while Sam Lane is the only player to not have played more than 50 caps for his country. 
 
The side sees the return of Simon Child for the first time since the 2016 Rio Olympics, having missed the past three years through injury. Child has played 274 matches for the Vantage Black Sticks and scored a massive 150 goals in that time. The kiwis will be looking for all his experience as the team is gearing up for 2020 Tokyo qualification. 

Tour Schedule 
17thAugust – Vantage Black Sticks vs Japan – 10:00pm NZT
18thAugust – Vantage Black Sticks vs India – 10:00pm NZT
20thAugust – Vantage Black Sticks vs Malaysia – 12:30pm NZT
21stAugust – Finals Day 

And a bit of celebration and congratulations

It's always great to celebrate our sporting success even if it's not Olympic sport related!

A huge congratulations to the kiwis who achieved great success at the 2019 CrossFit Games in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Jamie Greene (women's open) and Pauline Sciascia (60+ women) came third in their devision. For Jamie, coming third in the world is no mean feat considering she was up against 130 of the fittest women in the world!

Also congratulations to New Zealand Commonwealth Games weightlifter Alethea Boon who placed 5th in the women's 35-39 age group and all other kiwis that competed.

#EarnTheFern