Take a bow, Marley
A Queenstown rower who's competed for New Zealand in under-19 world champs for the past two years is now also a United States national university champion.
Marley King Smith, 19, who's just completed his first year of a four-year rowing scholarship at the University of Washington (UW), in Seattle, was in their winning heavyweight coxed four at the recent Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) national championship regatta on Philadelphia's Cooper River.
The four dominated the A final, winning in an IRA record time.
Marley's dad, Bas Smith, says his son was among just three of 17 UW rowing freshmen selected for the regatta.
Remarkably, he was also competing for the first time in a sweep oar boat, having come from a sculling or two-oar background — he won single sculls golds for Wakatipu High at the national secondary schools Maadi Cup regattas in '22 and '23.
"On top of that," Bas says, "the race conditions were incredibly challenging due to the prevailing wind, causing significant swell and chop through the final 750 metres of the course".
UW subsequently won three of their four heavyweight races — the others all being eights — to defend their national title.
Commenting on Marley's performance, Bas says "we're really stoked for him, and he's doing really well academically as well".
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