Mid Canterbury’s rowing superstar, Veronica Wall, has been at it again.

The Ashburton College student, who has just completed Year 12, clean-swept her rivals at a Christmas Regatta on Lake Karapiro on the weekend – winning three separate age groups with consummate ease.

One of the real rising stars of rowing in New Zealand, Wall has enjoyed a stellar 2016 including an unprecedented four gold medals at the Maadi Cup Regatta back in April as well as both Canterbury and South Island Championships.

She signed off on 2016 in a similar fashion on the weekend too.

The only Ashburton representative at the regatta, Wall went through her six races for the event unbeaten.

Wall breezed through the Under 17 girls’ single sculls with a smashing performance in the heat before producing another great effort in the final – albeit 19 seconds slower than her heat performance.

Then she dealt out more of the same in the Under 18 singles sculls event – winning her heat by nearly 30 seconds before running through the final with a time of just under nine minutes.

The superstar saved her best for the open grade event however, winning her heat in a time of eight minutes and 34 seconds before improving on that dramatically in the final to win the women’s senior single sculls final in a time of eight minutes and four seconds.

As well as her results on the water, Wall has been cleaning up on solid ground as well this year.

She was awarded the prestigious Jubilee Cup from the Canterbury Rowing Association and was also crowned Aoraki’s Female Sportsperson of the Year.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 19 December 2016