Masters Womens V6 500m World – 7th Overall in the World

An achievement well beyond our doubts.

The Masters Womens 40+ crew consisted of Amelia Cummings, Paia Engu, Mel Wetere (Coach), Jo Grammatico, Brenda Banks and Maria Tetohu.

The girls worked extremely hard in the months leading up to trials and stepping up their game even more so after qualifying right up to game day.  Many trial runs were had and these 6 girls were the top 6 selected selected to represent Surfers Paradise and in turn, Australia.  There were extra gym sessions, a strong focus on eating right, losing weight and giving 100% at daily on water sessions.  The girls united as one and became accountable to each other.

Day 1 of racing saw our team go straight through to the semi finals.  This was a tough defeat as there were many world quality teams out there all fighting for the same spots.

Day 2 meant we needed to step up again.  The nerves were starting to show but we flicked them off real quick and concentrated on the job at hand.  Yes…..we succeeded – we are in the Grand final.  Out of 35+ teams, we are top 8.  With nothing to lose, we take our place and are ready to give it all we have for our last race of the day and campaign.

Congratulations goes out to the girls who fought hard and placed 7th in the world.

The Gold was won by NZ, Silver by Australia (Cairns – the only other Aussie team in the GF) and Bronze by Tahiti.

Massive thanks to Mel (our coach and teammate) who believed in us all the way and persisted with us and to the rest of the girls, as we could not have achieved what we did without a single one of us.