Gus Olifiers has been selected to row for NZ in the 2017 Junior World Rowing Champs in Lithuania
I'm Gus Olifiers & I'm really proud to have been chosen to represent NZ in the 2017 NZ Junior Rowing Team competing in Lithuania in August.
Bay of Plenty
Hi I'm Gus Olifiers, a 17 year old year 13 student from Trident High School in Whakatane and I'm really excited & proud to have chosen to represent NZ as a member of the 2017 NZ Junior Rowing Team. We will be competing at the World Junior Rowing Champs being held in Lithuania in August 2017.
I have been selected to row in stroke seat in the double skull with Manawa McLaughlin from New Plymouth Boys High School. I'm really looking forward to this amazing opportunity!
A little about myself.
I started rowing at the Whakatane Rowing Club in January 2015 and have been coached by Graham Watt & Matt Hill.
In May 2015 I broke my shoulder in a motorbike accident so had 12 weeks off. I began light training again in September 2015 and went to my first regatta in October 2015.
Unfortunately my first season was plagued with problems with my shoulder and I had to scratch from lots of A finals. Things got worse after a back injury in March 2016 which stopped me from competing at Maadi.
I was gutted about not competing at Maadi and decided that the 2016/2017 season was going to be “my season” and started training harder. My parents put away my bike and I focused on my training. I was pretty stoked that my shoulder didn’t cause any problems and by December 2016 things were looking great.
The only finals I had to scratch from this season was at the Christmas Regatta in Dec 2016 when we received a call to say my 90 year old Oma was critically ill and my terminally ill aunty only had weeks to live. My aunty was one of the 2 people who got me into rowing.
I won my first bonze medal in the mens under 22 double skulls with Jarrod Bond at the North Island Club Champs in January 2017. My second was at the North Island Secondary School Champs where I won silver in the under 17 single and then Gold at Maadi in the under 17 single!
Since then things have improved heaps. The season has had its emotional downs with losing family members and amazing peaks, winning the under 17 single at Maadi Cup! My only regret is that my Oma and aunty weren’t here to share it with me.
The best so far was finding out that I’d been selected to trial for the NZ Junior Rowing Team and actually making it into the team.
I’m really looking forward to this amazing challenge.
Use of funds
The total cost for me to get to Lithuania is $10,000, $2,500 to relocate to Cambridge to train with the team for 8 weeks prior to leaving NZ and $7,500 to get to Lithuania.
I'd really appreciate any financial assistance you give me to help me achieve my dream.
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Latest update
Into week 2 of training 9 June 2017
I'm nearing the end of my second week training with the team at Karapiro. It's been challenging and fun at the same time. I've missed my family but am also enjoying being here and training with the team as well as taking part in the team building activities we have done off the water.
Sarah, our house manager at the lodge is really cool and makes being away from home easier.
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