Southern View: February 18, 2020

SOUTHERN VIEW Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Tuesday February 18 2020 11
BUSY: Woolston Boxing coach Holly Sullivan will run the New
Zealand Golden Gloves in June for the first time in six years.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
Woolston to hold
NZ Golden Gloves
• By Jacob Page
SPORT
THE WOOLSTON Boxing
Club will host the New Zealand
Golden Gloves event on June 27.
The national tournament is
seen as one of the pinnacle events
on the amateur boxing calendar
each year.
Woolston Boxing Club coach
and tournament organiser Holly
Sullivan said she wanted to host
the event after seeing how successful
it was in Rotorua last year.
“We hosted it back in 2014 and I
thought it was time we did it again.
“Rotorua had 40 bouts but
that’s with it being easier for the
North Island boxers to travel to
it so if I got 75 per cent of that I
would be really happy.
She said ideally each weight class
would have two South Island boxers
and two North Island boxers
who would compete for the right to
be called New Zealand No 1.
It will be a busy year for the
sport in the area with the club
hosting the South Island novice
championships in the lead-up to
the big event on March 21 and 22.
Sullivan said it would be her
10th time running the South
Island novice tournament which
was Woolston’s traditional annual
event.
“It is certainly going to be a
busy time but it is exciting.”
Both events will be held at the
Woolston Club.
Record-breaking effort
for cancer fundraiser
CHRISTCHURCH Boys’
High School’s rowing team
has set a new world record and
raised more than $22,000 for
Leukaemia and Blood Cancer
New Zealand in the process.
Ed Lopas, a member of the
school’s rowing team, was
diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma
– a form of blood cancer
– last year. It was only fitting that
the 16-year-old had the honour
of finishing the last stint of the
successful world record attempt
last Tuesday. The team of 61 rowers
set a new world record for the
longest continual team erg (rowing
machine) by a group aged
under-19. Their time of 145hr
10min smashed the previous
record of 96hr.
“It was pretty special having
everyone cheer me on to the finish,”
said Lopas.
The team travelled a total
distance of 1937km. On a map,
their travels took them from
school, north to Blenheim, west
to Greymouth, south to Queenstown,
east to Dunedin and up
SH1 back to school.
The school’s rowing manager
Ricardo De Sousa said he’s been
blown away by the team’s commitment
to the record-breaking
achievement.
“The boys have been absolutely
incredible. We thought it would
be a bit of a headache trying to get
FOR A CAUSE: Ed Lopas takes care of the last shift his rowing
team’s new world record of more than 145hr on the erg.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN ​
boys on the egg at silly hours of
the morning. It’s not the most fun
thing to be on and the boys tend to
shy away from it, but they wanted
to do it for Ed,” said De Sousa.
Senior rowers did shifts of
90min with some of the movies
doing shifts between 30-45min.
The team began the world record
big on February 5 and had
surpassed the previous world
record by the following Sunday
afternoon.
Ed was diagnosed with
Hodgkin’s lymphoma in July last
year.
After five months of successful
chemotherapy, Ed was cleared to
start physical activity again and
hopes to row at the Maadi Cup
regatta on Lake Ruataniwha near
Twizel next month.
He’s not one to gossip but....
No one is recognised as knowing more about Hollywood than
celebrity journalist David Hartnell MNZM.
He’s spent a lifetime reporting on Hollywood’s scandals of
the rich and famous and counts a handful of celebrities as
lifelong friends.
Tuesday 25 February, 10am, is your chance to meet David and get the inside
scoop on some of the outrageous gossip he can’t print in his columns.
This time his lips will not be sealed!
Tickets $5 per person, contact Lynne on 337 6500 to purchase.
Essie Summers Retirement Village, 222 Colombo Street, Beckenham.