John XXIII College Newsletter

Rowing Club

John XXIII College Rowing Club

The John XXIII College Rowing Club has enjoyed strong growth through the leadership of Rob Thomas over the past three years.  The club now has the largest membership of any rowing club in Western Australia and competes in the largest number of Regattas of any WA School.  With the addition of our new Head Coach Steve Saunders with over 20 years of experience coaching at an elite level, we are offering a great sporting experience to our students and heading for a wonderful season of rowing.

The start to the John XXIII College Boys Rowing season has gone at great pace with many outstanding events organised for the boys (and girls) and success at the first PSA regatta last Saturday.

PSA Regatta 1 -9 February

Saturday 9 February was the first in four PSA Regattas which our rowing boys will be attending. The conditions were not perfect, however our JTC rowers showed incredible grit to row in the difficult hot and windy conditions against formidable competition.  The outcome of the regatta was very positive for our JTC rowers where they were always in with a chance up and close to the winners. More specifically with our Senior A eight placing second in the 4th eight race and completing the race in the fastest time any John XXIII Crew has ever gone. This regatta proving to be an important marker of the boy’s potential and more positive results to come.

PSA Regatta 2 – 16 February

This Regatta again proved to be very successful for our JTC boys rowing team.  It was terrific to see our Senior A eight improving their personal best (set at Regatta 1) by another 17 seconds in the second coxed eight: This is a 2km race and the boys finished in the time of 6:39.33 mins only behind first place by 16 seconds, a margin of a mere 2%.  How much faster can these boys go! We will see this weekend at Regatta 3 ….

Upcoming Events

  • Saturday 23 February - PSA Regatta 3, Champion Lakes
  • Saturday 16 March - PSA Regatta 5  'Head of the River', Champion Lakes
  • Sunday 31 March- South West Schools Head of the River, Bunbury Racing Course
  • Friday 26 – 28 April - JTC Girls Rowing Camp, JTC Campus
  • Saturday 4 May -  IGSSA Regatta 1, Champion Lakes
  • Saturday 11 May - JTC Rowing Club QUIZ night fundraiser, John XXIII college

New Zealand Rowing Tour

Twenty-four senior students attended the inaugural overseas rowing trip to New Zealand last month.  It was a great way to train for this upcoming season with training events twice a day and terrific team building events also included.  It was an amazing experience with tough competition from the local New Zealand rowers, however, our students did the College proud in the local school competitions. The New Zealand schools were extremely hospitable and made the tour a delight.  John XXIII College will definitely be returning to such a wonderful and beautiful place for rowing.