The South African Junior Eight crew competed against 14 nations, including last year’s world champions in Italy.
“The crew had a tough heat against Romania, Italy, Russia and the Netherlands in which they finished fifth. This placed them into the repechage against Croatia, Russia, Bulgaria and Denmark,” said the school’s Toni Williams.
Only the top three crews in the repechage qualified for the A/B semi-final, which the St John’s crew did when they beat the Russian team by little more than one second.
The crew was placed fifth in the semi-final which qualified them for the B final against Croatia, the USA, Bulgaria, Lithuania and the Netherlands.
“The crew placed fifth in the B final in a time of 5:57.37, just over half a second off the Bulgarian crew,” she said.
This placed the crew 11th overall.
“Well done to Nicholas Papas, Jason McNeil, Sean Verheul, Joseph Savanya-Terblanche and Andrew Morgan for this outstanding performance, and congratulations to our rowing coach, Grant Dodds, who has coached the South African crew since April,” said Williams.
