Central Districts Rowing Regatta at Taree | Photos

The weather gods were kind to even though the rain on the opening morning made it a little soggy under foot.

Mikayla Smith was a standout competitor Manning River at the regatta.

She combined with crews from Upper Hunter in double and quad age races. However it was in the under 15 single scull where she grabbed the attention of the commentator and the crowd.

During the first half of the race three scullers, Smith, Myfina Bland from Newcastle Grammar School and Isabella Turner from Hunter Valley Grammar School cleared away from the field by three boat lengths. With 200 metres to go, Bland and Smith made it a race in two with Bland slightly ahead.

Smith then put a show of strength and determination to draw on level terms with Bland. Although she has only been rowing a couple of seasons, Smith has gained plenty of local knowledge and used to great advantage to place the bow of the boat in front by 0.76 seconds when crossing the finish line, making it one of the closest finishes of the regatta.

Newcastle University went home smiling with Shantelle Lindsay winning the championship women's single scull while Odin Mackintosh completed the double, winning the championship men's single scull in hotly contested final.

Manning River's Graham Nix renewed acquaintance with John McCallum and Tony Beeton, a combination that has been not been on the Manning for some time. They teamed with Nick Johnston to win the men's masters championship quad in the F category.

It was little more than a training run for the NSW representative crew of Roy Halliday and Rhett Pattison from Manning River, Sean Donza from Endeavour Rowing Club and Gareth Salkield from Newcastle Rowing Club in D category. They had two more outings in the men's seeded quad sculls and once again collected the shiny gold medals for their efforts. This crew is the flagship for NSW in Tasmania at the Australian Masters regatta to held on Lake Barrington come the end of April and early May.

In the single scull Manning River's Nicole Pullen showed good form to take out the C category while Graham Nix added to his long list of accomplishments by winning the single scull. Nix then combined with Roy Halliday to comfortably win the men's masters championship double.

Nix and Halliday were heavily involved with coaching the Manning juniors and the success continued when Ethan Biles, who is relatively new to rowing and contesting his first regatta, finished a credible second in men's D grade double scull with brother, Luke.

Another relatively new crew, Brian Alexander, Col Tallis, Phil Molkentin and Andrew Halley had a couple of breaks from the barbecue and other duties to demonstrate they could mix it up on the water.

Hannah Smith moved up a grade into C and won her division in tight struggle with competitors from Newcastle University and Hunter Valley Grammar School. In the under 16 single scull Smith finished second in both the heat and final, while her doubles partner Mali Hoadley finished first in the heat and fourth in the final. The pair had success in the championship women's under 16 double scull, then finished third in under 17s rowing over 2000 metres. This is a stepping stone for next season.

Tara Copp and Mikayla Smith reunited with Mali and Hannah to once again win the seeded women's quad scull.