Bay Phoenix rises to get gold

Conditions at Swansea Belmont beach on Friday meant the female 160 event was moved to the nearby Lake Macquarie, with the Bay facing stiff competition from still water specialists Manly.

After winning the first heat, the Bay suffered a narrow loss to their Northern Beaches counterparts in the second heat, but were still able to clinch the title due to Manly’s third place in the first heat.

Tracy Innes from the crew said they had to dig deep to get the victory.

“It’s always challenging racing in the lake, because of the shallow water and the fact you don’t have any waves to help you along,” he said.

“Manly have national still water rowers in their squad, so they were always going to be tough to beat.

“Two of our crew members are in their first year of competitive rowing, so I think it was pretty impressive what we managed to achieve.”

The State Championships marks the beginning for a busy period for the crew of Innes, Barbara Van Luin, Megan Duros, and Fran Campbell who are set compete in the Australian and World titles in the coming weeks.

The Batemans Bay men’s A crew also performed well throughout the weekend, making it through some big swell on Saturday to progress to Sunday’s quarter finals.

After setting the pace for the majority of the finals, the crew ended up finishing third behind Bulli and Queenscliff.