Rowing
11 March, 2025
Rowers impress at first state championships
Horsham Rowers, Jeremy Matheson, Christian Ebersohn, Nirvan Suwal, Joseph Shepherd and Lachlan Lindorff won the Male C-Grade Coxed Scull at the recent Victorian State Championships held at Nagambie on Saturday March 1, and Sunday March 2.
The quintet is new to rowing this season, racing together for the first time in October 2024. In the lead-up to the state titles, they had wins in Bendigo, Dimboola, Hamilton, Ballarat, and Essendon, all in the beginner or novice category.
They stepped out of that category and entered the championships, where they had to enter grade competitions.
With 300-400 metres to go, four boats were in contention and with 250m to go, they took the lead and won in a time of 3:45.33 over 1000m, 2.33 seconds ahead of Essendon in second. Ballarat High was a further 0.53 seconds back in third.
This was the first time Horsham City had entered the state championships. They had entries in the Men's Doubles, Singles and Quad Sculls.
In the Male C Grade Single Scull, Jeremy Matheson came fifth while Cadel Hawken, also of Horsham City, finished in eighth. They both finished third in their respective heats to make the final.
Jeremy Matheson and Joseph Shepherd finished fourth in the Male C Grade Double Scull, just 0.29 seconds behind third placed Richmond. They won their heat to make the final. Christian Ebersohn and Nirvan Suwal finished eighth.
Sarah Tottenham, also rowed, and contested the Female B Grade Single Scull, but didn't qualify for the final.
Horsham Rowing Club president and coach Ray White said it was a remarkable result for the boys, especially as it was the second-last race, and they participated in other disciplines during the day.
"It was a big step up for them to go into this regatta, but they have been doing well in their novice events and we thought we could give it a go and give them experience," White said.
"They were certainly tired afterwards as the heats take a lot out of you, and you have to turn around and do a final sixty minutes later so it doesn't give you much recovery time.
"They were pretty euphoric and quite happy and had to row hard for it."
While they are progressing well, White said there's still plenty of improvement and that keeping them together could be an issue.
"Their rowing style still has room for improvement, and we had a debrief on it with some shots out of the race about what could be improved," White said.
"Keeping them together is the challenging part as they are in mixed years in age groups, with two undertaking year 12 this year, so it will make them harder to compete at the end of the year when their study levels increase.
"We also have a few more that can come through, but all in all, it's a very exciting time for the club and these boys will only get better."
The Horsham Rowing Club will head to the Footscray regatta in a fortnight and then Mildura at Easter, the last one for the season, in which the boys will compete.
From there, the ladies will compete heading into the masters regatta season, which finishes with the State Masters Championships in early May. Before that, they will head to Ballarat and maybe Barwon.