At the
2011 World Rowing Junior Championships at
Dorney Lake,
Dorney, England, Shepherd won silver with the junior men's coxed four. At the
2012 World Rowing U23 Championships at
Trakai in Lithuania, Shepherd won bronze with the U23 men's coxed four. At the
2013 World Rowing U23 Championships at
Linz-
Ottensheim in Austria, he won gold with the men's eight. A year later at the July
2014 World Rowing U23 Championships in
Varese, Italy, he won another gold with the same boat. On 29 August 2014, Shepherd was the cox for
Hamish Bond and
Eric Murray when they set the world best time in the men's coxed pair at the
2014 World Rowing Championships at
Bosbaan,
Amsterdam in the final race, thus winning gold. As of 2021 that time still stood as the world's best. He came fourth at the
2015 World Rowing Championships with the men's eight, qualifying the boat for the
2016 Olympics. This is the first time that a New Zealand eight qualified for the Olympics since
1984, despite the famous performance of past eights including the
1982 New Zealand eight. He came sixth with his team at the
eights competition in
Rio de Janeiro. ==References==