Columba rowers were to the fore at the NZSS Rowing Championships in Twizel recently, gaining medals once again.

10 members of the Columba Rowing Squad attended the New Zealand Secondary Schools Regatta - known as Maadi Cup - in Twizel, from 28 March - 2 April. Around three weeks prior to Maadi, New Zealand Rowing announced restrictions on competitors at Maadi Cup, meaning only Year 11, 12 and 13 students would be allowed to attend. This meant some of our younger rowers, especially those in novice crews, were unable to come, and for the Novice four, Novice quad and Novice double, the heats at Maadi were the first time they had raced together as a crew.

We left at 6am on the morning of Saturday 26 March, arriving in Twizel by 9am to rig our boats and go for a training row on the lake. It was a beautiful day, indicated by the numerous other schools and boats also training at the same time as us. By Sunday evening we had all been for three training rows in the boats we would be racing, and were feeling well prepared, excited, and a little bit nervous for the week of racing ahead. Maadi Cup is the first and only regatta where schools from both the North and South Islands are in attendance, making the first few races important for everybody to see where they sit in relation to schools from other parts of the country.

Columba’s first race of the regatta was on Monday morning, the heat of the girls U17 coxed four. Millie Scott, Bridgette Sutton, Jendi Minty, Sara Reynolds and coxswain Isabella Davey won their heat, automatically qualifying for the semi-final with the sixth-fastest time. Unfortunately for this crew, their semi-final wasn’t the race they had hoped for and they placed fifth, missing out on a place in the A Final by around 4 seconds. The girls held their heads high, however, and it can be noted that three members of this crew are still U16 rowers, and will likely be competing in this event again next year. The U17 four finished their season in style, racing a tidy B Final and cruising down the course to place fourth.

The next race was not long after this, with the U17 coxed quadruple sculls heat. Millie, Bridgette and Jendi were joined by Laura Sammut in the stroke seat, again with Isabella coxing. They placed second in their heat, progressing to the repechage, which they then won, before placing second in their semi-final. This crew eventually placed sixth in the A Final - an achievement they were proud of considering the significant improvements they made with each race.

The Novice double sculls crew of Briar Duncan and Grace Heath had a strong week of racing, placing second in their heat and winning their repechage. The girls had an incredible A Final on Friday, winning a silver as Columba’s first medal of the regatta! This is an especially remarkable feat as the two girls had never raced this double together before, and their results are promising as they both move into age group rowing next season.

Also in the Novice double sculls event were Olivia Davies and Hannah O’Neill. Like Briar and Grace, the two had never raced together before but enjoyed every race and were tidy coming down the course in their heat, repechage and B Final, in which they placed fifth.

Laura had her second race on Monday, in the U17 single sculls. Laura was racing the first single Columba has entered at Maadi in a long time and continued to impress everybody as she improved in every race. Laura placed third in her heat to progress to the quarter-finals, in which she also placed third, before narrowly missing out on a place in the A Final by less than two seconds. Laura finished her season on a high, placing third in the B Final and beating many of her South Island rivals from other regattas throughout the season.

Laura’s heat concluded our racing for Monday. We all returned to our accommodation pleased with our results and looking forward to the remainder of the heats on Tuesday.

First on Tuesday morning was the heat of the Novice coxed quadruple sculls. Briar, Grace, Hannah and Olivia - coxed by Isabella - won their heat, progressing to the A Final with the quickest time. This crew had another fast race on Saturday, crossing the line behind Villa Maria to win Columba’s second silver medal of the regatta!

Millie and Bridgette then raced their heat of the U17 coxless pair. After a rough start, they found a good rhythm to pass the crews ahead of them and win the heat, progressing straight to the A Final. Going into the final, these girls had the third-fastest time but were not far ahead of all the crews ranked behind them, particularly a Rangiruru crew who had beaten them previously. However, Millie and Bridgette solidified their place by the halfway mark and crossed the finish line in third, winning a bronze medal!

The same crew in the Novice quad also raced in the Novice coxed four. The girls discovered they were better at sculling than sweeping, however, as they were racing many of the same crews as were entered in the quad. They placed 6th in the A Final after a direct progression from the heats, and had fun in their final race of the season. This crew is unlikely to race together again, as they will be in different age groups next season.

Jendi and Sara combined to form Columba’s final crew at Maadi Cup for 2022. They raced in the U16 double sculls, placing fourth in their heat and third in the quarter-final, then coming seventh in the B Final. This left them ranked 15th out of 50 entrants, something of which they should both be proud!

Overall, the Columba squad had a successful Maadi and coaches and parents alike were happy to see the rowers come away with some medals. If you are interested in rowing next season, feel free to get in touch with any of the rowers as we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have!

From all the rowers, a huge thank you must go out to our parents for getting us to early morning trainings and making sure we were looking after ourselves. To our coaches, we are grateful for all the time you have put into making us better rowers this season. To Columba, thank you for your support of the rowing programme that has been established - it is greatly appreciated. All of  College's the students and staff are constantly encouraging and we are glad we could give you some successful races to watch in celebration of the end of this season. 

Finally, to Mrs Sinclair, we are grateful for all the time you have invested in looking after our best interests, and for your incredible organisational skills which helped us all be in the right place at the right time. All of your support has helped the Columba rowers achieve their incredible results this season and we can’t wait to see what we can do next year!

By Miss Bridgette Sutton