Newcastle Rowing Club will look to recent addition Brad Smith to help them end a nine-year drought in the Linwood Throsby Gift Relay on Sunday.
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The relay will be the feature event of the Central Districts Rowing Sprint Championships, hosted this year by the Newcastle club on Throsby Creek at Carrington.
The 25th edition of the regatta has 123 races, making it the biggest for the titles since 2019.
It will include open men's, women's, juniors and masters categories across various formats and has attracted crews from the Hunter, Mid North Coast, Central Coast and Sydney.
The unique Linwood Throsby Gift Relay carries winning prizemoney of $2000 and features mixed gender crews in double sculls, coxed four and quad formats competing over the same 400m course. Flagbearers at the finish line indicate when each club's crew has finished a leg, allowing the next crew to start.
Two heats of three crews will race for a spot in the final. The winners and the fastest runner-up will face off in the decider.
Newcastle University and Nepean have dominated the relay in recent years and they will come up against Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle and Hunter Valley Grammar School crews this year.
Newcastle Rowing Club's Ben Homer, well known as a Fox Sports broadcaster, will compete in the quad crew for the relay as well the open single and double events.
Homer believed doubles partner Smith, who has moved from the Glebe club this year, would boost their chances of winning the relay for the first time since 2014.
He said and Gareth Salkield, a former national champion and Australian junior representative, was another key member of the host club's team.
The regatta is set to start at 8am and wrap up about 3pm.
Two new races - a para double scull and non-gender single scull - are also on the schedule.
IN THE NEWS:
Craig Kerry
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
