Ben Mason selected for NZ Elite Rowing team

By Rachel Ozanne | Posted: Wednesday June 28, 2023

The trajectory for OBHS old boy Ben Mason continues to rise.

Most of the rowers at OBHS know of Ben from the motivating talk he gave at a boat naming ceremony in Twizel last year. OBHS honoured Ben and his achievements by naming a brand new single after him.

The boys may also not know that the bright pink rowsuits that some of the current OBHS rowers wear were purchased as a fundraiser for Ben's 2021 row of 1000km up the Bay of Islands coast, raising awareness and $32,000 for Breast Cancer.

Stepping back to 2018, Ben was selected to row in the South Island Team in 2019. In 2019, his last year at OBHS, he won the Men's Club Double at the National Champs, and then went on to win Gold in the Boy's U18 Double and Silver in the Boy's U18 Coxed Quad at the 2019 Aon Maadi Regatta.

Ben then competed at the 2019 Junior World Rowing Championships in Tokyo, Japan. From here and after the disruption of COVID interfering with training and regattas, Ben came back to have his most standout year in 2022 with Avon Rowing Club and he earned a spot in the NZ U23 Men's Quad.

In 2022, Ben was selected in the Elite Development Squad at Rowing NZ and now, he has been selected in the 2023 Elite Men's Sculling Squad as well as being selected as the 2023 NZ U23 Single Sculler to compete at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

We are incredibly proud of Ben and his achievements. He's an OBHS rower who did the hard yards on Dunedin Harbour, just like our rowers do today. He is an inspiration to our boys and we wish him all the very best.

From all present and past OBHS rowers, committee members and rowing parents - we know how hard you must have worked to achieve this selection and we will be cheering you on.

Well done!

Photograph and information courtesy of Rowing NZ.