Scotch Oakburn College has capped off a top weekend in the water, taking home the prized Home Reach Trophy to end the Launceston and Henley Regatta.
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The deciding schoolboys eights race might have been a two-boat race on the Tamar River, but Scotch head coach James Russell felt the respect for fierce rivals Launceston Church Grammar spurred his crew onto victory.
“All for the last two years, we’ve had some really good tussles with Grammar – and it was that again,” he said.
“It was a great race because we both have mutual respect for each other.”
Scotch also took a sweep of the major trophies that has included the schoolgirls eights, both the coxed quad sculls races and the junior and senior aggregate shields.
The stranglehold continued in the opening nine races that extended to winning 10 of the 19 division 1 races on Sunday, adding to its 17 victories from 22 on Saturday.
“It was better than what we expected – it really was, especially with our juniors,” Russell said.
“We have really put an emphasis on getting some really good coaches and we have been trying to develop that over the last two years to be perfectly honest just to get everyone coaching the same way. Finally, it’s coming along nicely because of the calibre of coaches we’ve got.
“That’s a direct reflection on how we’ve performed.”
The Launceston and Henley Regatta also broke away from its decorated 180-year tradition to include for the first time 500m sprint races.
Association president Adam Winzenberg hoped the change would help revitalise the longest continuously-run regatta in the world.
“I think it worked out alright. Next year we need to handicap them,” he said.
“So it was just a bit of a learning curve for us to see if we got any interest. Certainly the public on the shore were interested in it.”
The men’s 500m proved to be a cracker after four crews all finished within a length and half of each other.
Winzenberg wanted the new shorter distances to bring the public to rowing.
“It was about trying to do something to create more interest,” he said, “because the people who come to the regattas are just the parents, grandparents and kids in it.”
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