Columba College rowers raced their hearts out last week at the New Zealand Secondary School Rowing Championships to qualify for 7 A finals - a great result for the 17 athletes.

The Columba rowing squad spent 10 days (19-28th March) in Cambridge for the Maadi Cup. The week was filled with plenty of highs and a few lows, as well as some very close races for various crews. With the South Island Secondary Schools Regatta being cancelled a couple of weeks earlier, we were eager to race again and relieved that the event was able to go ahead. On day one we also discovered that South Island medals were up for grabs in all our races. We were all very excited for the Maadi experience, due to the 2020 regatta being cancelled because of COVID.

We flew into Auckland Airport, then drove to our accommodation at Kaipaki Hall - around 15 minutes from Lake Karapiro. We had two days of training before the regatta started, as well as the banner parade around the streets of Cambridge on Sunday.

Racing began on Monday with 6 Columba Crews in five events. Two under 17 coxed fours were in separate heats. The crew of Millie Scott, Siena Snow, Phoebe Wellstead, Elyse Davey and cox Brooke Kendall came second in their heat, narrowly missing out on a direct progression to the A final by just under two seconds. The other crew of Izzy Gallagher, Meg Macdougall, Laura Sammut and Maddy Sullivan with cox Tamzin Burgess came sixth in their heat. Caitlin O’Brien and Maya Bromby then raced in the girls under 18 double sculls, placing fifth in their heat. Caitlin also raced with Siena in the girls under 18 coxless pair, where they came fourth in their heat. Tamzin coxed the under 15 four on Monday. This crew was made of Bridgette Sutton, Jendi Minty, Sara Reynolds and Alexis Phipps. They placed second in their heat and progressed to the A final with the third fastest time. The final race for the squad on Monday was the girls novice double sculls. Sara Reynolds and Clair Wild placed sixth in their heat in their first ever race in a double.

Tuesday was the second day of heats, with five Columba crews racing. Bridgette and Jendi started off the day well, with a win in the girls under 15 double sculls heat. The under 17 coxed eight of Izzy, Elyse, Phoebe, Millie, Meg, Maddy, Laura and Maya, with Cox Brooke, placed sixth in their heat. Bridgette, Millie, Laura and Brooke then joined Alexis in the girls under 16 coxed four, coming away with another win in their heat. Siena and Phoebe raced in the girls under 17 double sculls where they placed second in their heat. The girls under 18 novice coxed four of Sara, Jendi, Clair, Alexis and Tamzin finished off the day with a second place in their heat.

Wednesday and Thursday were repecharges and semi finals for a majority of the crews. Progressions after these two days meant that Columba had seven crews in A finals.

Finals began on Friday morning with a seventh in the under 17 coxed four and a very close fourth in the under 15 coxed four. Siena and Caitlin also placed eighth in their pair.

On Saturday, Bridgette and Jendi placed eighth in their final, missing out on seventh by 0.05 seconds. The under 16 coxed four then gained another narrow fourth and Phoebe and Siena placed eighth in their final. The novice four headed into their final eager to come out with a good result in their last race as novices. At the 500m to go mark, they were sitting in fourth, and despite one final sprint led by Sara, they missed out on a medal by 1.01 seconds.

Although no Maadi Medals were brought home, the squad gained two silver and four bronze South Island medals, a result which we would have been proud of at that regatta.

To finish off the week, we received some great news for two members of the squad. Phoebe received a South Island U18 trial, and Siena a trial for the New Zealand U19 Junior team. Congratulations girls!