St Paul’s Collegiate signified their readiness to capture the prestigious Springbok Shield at the Maadi Cup on Monday.
The school’s boys' under-18 coxed four crew of Henry Wills, James Ingham, Connor Gordon, Charles Christey and coxswain Kelly Forde have proved a star turn at the New Zealand secondary schools rowing championships at Lake Karapiro with a dominant heat win.
The crew won the third and final heat of the class in a time of six minutes 24.78 seconds – almost four seconds faster than arch-rivals Hamilton Boys' High School, who won the opening heat.
St Paul’s victory pushed them straight through to Friday afternoon’s final for the Springbok Shield. The two Waikato crews will also feature as part of their schools' respective eights on Tuesday and are expected to battle out the Maadi Cup in the U18 boys' blue riband finale on Saturday afternoon. Local crews will also be chasing glory in the girls' U18 coxed four for the Dawn Cup.
Waikato Diocesan School for Girls' number one crew of Anahera Nin, Brooklyn Dunn, Zoe White, Olivia Morgan and coxswain Molly Densem won their heat in 7:16.19 to be the fastest qualifiers, advancing directly to the final. The Hillcrest High School crew were second in the second heat behind Epsom Girls' Grammar and will go through a repechage but still loom as a medal prospect for Friday.
St Peter’s School’s sculling programme was also in evidence as they comfortably qualified both crews to the quarterfinals in the girls' U18 double sculls class in times that indicated they will be in medal contention on Friday.
Hamilton BHS have won the Executive Trophy as the top sweep oar school at the past two Maadi Cup regattas and again have a strong team competing in all four age-groups. The school will seek gold in the boys' U17 eight and that crew won their heat on Monday in 6:01.56 – third-fastest in direct qualifying for the final behind the first two home in the earlier heat, Christ’s College and Marlborough Boys' College.
The Waikato Dio duo of Nin and Madison Dunn went straight to the semifinals of the girls' U18 pair with a close heat win over St Margaret’s College, while the Sacred Heart Girls' College (Hamilton) pair of Finau Mosa'Ati Fosita and Claudia Mecchia won their heat to also advance to the semis.
The 2015 Aon New Zealand secondary schools regatta has 2359 rowers registered for the six days of competition.
The largest number of entries in one event comes in the girls' U17 single scull, with 64 rowers competing from 51 different schools.
There are 52 classes of events at the regatta, featuring 1468 boats.
