What an amazing Maadi Cup for Timaru Boys’.

Six days of racing, 2,432 competitors, 354 coaches, 123 schools and only 50 Gold medals to be won in total, with only 25 available nationally for boys.

Heats were held on Monday and Tuesday, plus repechage races on Wednesday - repechage provides a second chance for those who narrowly missed out on a finals race in the previous ‘heats’ days. Combine that with the semi-finals on Thursday and the result for Timaru Boys’ was 10x A finals, 6x B finals and a C final. Only A finals gain medals.

This has turned out to be our most successful Maadi since 2012, when one of our current coaches,Hooper Kelly-Smith won Gold with the Crampton twins and James Walker in a quad. That year the Cramptons went on to take Gold in the double as well.

The first medal this year was on Friday when Blake Parker (younger brother to recent Old Boy Liam Parker) and Josh Bartlett sculled the Under 15 double to a Bronze medal early in the day. Saturday proved even more successful with our Under 15 Quad of Blake Parker, Josh Bartlett, Ben Allan, Mac Brown, and coxed by Finn Gollins who punched their way through some windy conditions to take Gold. This really lifted the whole team of 24 boys.

The afternoon found success for our Under 17 boys quad of Sam Wilson, William Talbot, Will Davidson, Billy McCully and Ty Bishop (cox) who, after four seasons of training, managed a podium finish, to collect Bronze.

They were our medal winners at Maadi, but the rest of the team had some pretty stunning races, and many were awarded medals in recognition of their performance at the cancelled South Island Rowing Championships on Lake Ruataniwha. 

Other Maadi performances of note included Ben Goldingham and William Light in their Under 17 coxless pair, and Charlie Clememens, Will Davidson, Ben Bartlett, Billy McCully coxed by Finn Gollins in the Under 18 coxed quad. Both teams achieved Top 5 in NZ. 

Congratulations also to Billy McCully and Will Davidson who have been named to contest the South Island trial to select a squad to row against their under-18 North Island counterparts at Lake Karapiro at the end of April.  We wish them the very best of luck.