Strong gusts up to 60 km/h an hour blowing across Lake Wendouree had rolling waves big enough to surf on which is disastrous in the sport of rowing.
Experienced scullers flipped out of their boats and some were blown across lanes bumping into other boats making it unsafe to continue, race officials calling it off just after 11 am.
Shepparton Rowing Club members were ecstatic at the finish line cheering for James Darbyshire in his heat of the D-grade single where he narrowly missed out on a spot in the finals.
The close finish enthused the other teammates from Shepparton who were waiting for their events, most of who didn’t get to compete.
The wind was picking up as James Eldred and Hamish Kerr paddled down to the 2000 m start line for their under-17 double scull event.
The Shepparton crew had a great start, but its plan to keep up the pace with the faster crews came unstuck when it hit the choppy water halfway down the lake.
Eldred and Kerr increased their stroke rating for the last leg of the course, but just couldn’t catch the leaders finishing in fifth place.
Kialla’s Jack Puise, who is now rowing for Brighton Grammar, won a silver medal in the B-grade coxed four.
Puise also scored a bronze on Saturday in the school eights first division.
With competition cut short Puise was unable to test out his speed in the under-17 single, he will now have to wait until the national championships in Sydney in three weeks’ time.
Pressure is off now for a couple of weeks for Shepparton which will next compete on the Maribyrnong River at Footscray on the Saturday and Essendon sprint races on the Sunday.
