Thanks to a series of outstanding results over the 2025-26 season, Imogen Hille and Charlie Fitzgerald are now in contention for North Island crews to race their South Island counterparts at a regatta on 17 and 18 April at Karapiro.

Also in consideration for the New Zealand Under 19 squad is ex-Onslow College rower Olivia Martin, who now rows out of Star Boating Club.

The Samuel Marsden Collegiate duo of Imogen and Charlie have both been invited to trial for a range of boats for the regatta, following an outstanding season racing in the U17 and U18 pair.

The highlight of the season was their silver medal at Maadi Cup in the U17 girl’s pair, which built on success they had earlier in the year at North Island Secondary Schools Championships (silver in the same event) and the New Zealand Club Championships (bronze in the Club Women’s pair).

While their results have been impressive, Charlie says the pair is still fairly new for the girls.

“It’s a boat we only really started training in last season, but I like how much teamwork it requires, and really feels good when you’re working together.

“At the start of the season, we’d hoped we would be competitive but we weren’t really sure. We’d competed in Under 17 categories as Under 16 rowers and we got results at NISSC but then didn’t race it at Maadi. So we didn’t really know who we’d be up against, and there are always new crews that come into the mix each year.”

Charlie says their favourite regatta from the 2025-26 season was probably the Maadi Cup, as well as the National Club Champs.

“We developed our race plan a lot at Nationals, which helped us change our races with different pieces and different areas of focus. So we learned a lot from that regatta.

“But Maadi was super cool. We hadn’t been to Twizel since we were Under 15s so we loved being back.”

As far as the immediate future goes, the trails for the North Island squad is the main focus, followed by a winter training programme.

Congratulations to Charlie and Imogen on their season and all the very best of luck for the trials. Hopefully, we’ll see you both lining up for the North Island in a couple of weeks.

Article added: Thursday 02 April 2026