The elite women will take centre stage at this Sunday's NZME Billy Webb Challenge held on the Whanganui River in Wanganui. New Zealand single sculler and 2014 World Champion Emma Twigg will face international competition from Canadian single sculler Carling Zeeman. Zeeman finished sixth at the 2015 World Championships in Aiguebelette this year and is training alongside Twigg over the summer. Twigg will also line up against eight of the Rowing New Zealand summer squad sculling group, including last year's winner and the National Champion, Lucy Spoors.
The event marks Twigg's return to Rowing NZ after a year off for international studies.
Billy Webb stalwart and Olympic Champion Mahe Drysdale will line up against up and coming scullers from the Southern Regional Performance Centre.
The NZME Billy Webb Challenge is a five kilometre race downstream in singles, featuring a mass start in a similar concept to the Swiss "Armada Cup" event. At the start scullers are stationed in a grid pattern with the whole field starting simultaneously on the start signal and finishing near the Waimarie wharf. Winners of the elite divisions win a $1,000 cash prize while every other division races for a $100 purse.
Last year's winner of the Philippa Baker-Hogan Women's Elite trophy, Lucy Spoors first competed at the 2014 event having just completed the Round Taupo Challenge cycle race. Hamish Bond won the men's title last year claiming victory over Mahe Drysdale. Drysdale has been a stalwart of the Billy Webb Challenge, competing in every event since the challenge was inaugurated in 2008 and winning four times. Emma Twigg is also a past winner, winning the event in 2009 when she went up against Australian sculler Sally Kehoe.
In the 2014 event there were 22 scullers participating, providing an exciting race. With over 40 scullers of various skill levels lining up in 2015 the race promises to produce a great spectacle on the Whanganui River.
In addition to the single scull challenge race there will also be a corporate eights challenge event and in a new format a small boat rowing relay race. The corporate eights have always formed a part of the Billy Webb challenge and in the past have been well supported by local businesses.
The team relay is a new concept, featuring a team of five athletes, two female, three male - racing a single scull, a pair, and in the final leg a double scull. The team are allowed to distribute the athletes through those three boats as they see fit to develop a winning strategy.
The Billy Webb Challenge commemorates World Champion Billy Webb's historic defence of his title on the Wanganui River back in 1908.