Hamilton Boys' High School was stripped of eight medals and a shield after being found in breach of regatta rules. Photo / Tim Clayton
Hamilton Boys' High School was stripped of eight medals and a shield after being found in breach of regatta rules. Photo / Tim Clayton
Rule breaches have seen the Hamilton Boys’ High School rowing teams stripped of the 2022 Derbyshire Shield for overall champion school at the North Island Secondary School Championships, as well as gold medals in eight categories at major regattas.
The Waikato school admitted to 17 breaches of rulesand regulations, involving two students, across 10 events in the Under-15 and Under-16 novice boys categories at four major regattas - including entering ineligible rowers in the novice category.
Hamilton Boys’ High School has been forced to apologise and accept disqualifications after an investigation carried out by the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Association (NZSSRA).
The school has had all its crews disqualified from 22 races in the 10 events where a breach occurred.
All trophy or shield points gained in those events during the 2022 and 2023 North Island Secondary School Rowing Championships and the 2021 and 2022 Maadi Cup National Championships were also forfeited.
The disqualifications resulted in other schools moving up the rankings in 19 of those races, as well as the five points-based shields and trophies up for grabs each year.
Hamilton Boys’ teams were stripped of their first-place positions in eight categories at the 2022 Maadi Cup and the 2022 and 2023 North Island regattas.
This saw St Paul’s Collegiate School, St Peter’s College in Auckland, Sacred Heart College (Auckland), Westlake Boys’ High School (Auckland), St Bede’s College (Christchurch), and Wakatipu High School (Queenstown) all move into first place in at least one of the eight races.
The disqualifications also saw Hamilton Boys’ lose the Derbyshire Shield for overall champion school at the 2022 North Island Championships, with it instead being shared between St Peter’s School in Cambridge and Waikato Diocesan School, who ended the regatta with the same number of points.
Hamilton Boys’ were also runners-up for the 2022 Star Trophy - the prize awarded to the top overall school at the Maadi Cup national championships - and the Executive Trophy, the champion sweep oar school at the Maadi Cup, until the disqualifications pushed them lower down in the rankings.
The NZSSRA statement said Hamilton Boys’ High School failed to properly enter and/or substitute two rowers at the 2021 Maadi Cup and the 2022 North Island Secondary School Rowing Championships.
Those same two rowers were then entered as “novices” in subsequent years at the 2022 and 2023 North Island Secondary School Rowing Championships and the 2022 Maadi Cup when they were not eligible to do so.
The school also faces a conditional suspension from the membership of NZRSSA for one regatta if the school breaches the same rules again within two years - meaning none of the school’s students would be able to compete.
Rowing New Zealand general manager of community and development Mark Weatherall, who is a member of the Schools Committee which investigated and sanctioned the school, said the organisation fully supported the stance taken by the NZSSRA and the sanctions that had been applied to Hamilton Boys’.
“The sanctions imposed by the NZSSRA should serve as a reminder to all schools that they must fully comply with the rules that govern rowing - this is fundamental to the ongoing integrity of the sport.”
Hamilton Boys' High School principal Susan Hassall apologised “unreservedly to all the schools competing in the regattas involved”.
In its written apology, Hamilton Boys’ principal Susan Hassall admitted the breaches and said the school was “devastated” to learn of them and apologised “unreservedly to all the schools competing in the regattas involved”.
“We deeply regret the impact this has had on the students at other schools and can assure everyone that we are making significant changes to our rowing programme to make sure it never happens again,” she wrote.
“The breaches do not reflect the school’s approach to sport and were, regrettably, the result of very poor judgement by one person in our rowing programme. At no point in time did the school set out to breach NZRSSA’s rules and regulations.
“The staff member concerned was at all times trying to provide opportunities for boys to row - including during the very difficult period where regattas were significantly impacted by Covid-19. However, that is not an excuse for the breaches.
“It is not acceptable that any school, and in particular one with such a strong rowing heritage at HBHS, breaches the rules in this way. We are sorry we did not do better.”
Hassall said they were making changes to the rowing programme to make sure there were no more breaches.
She said the school would have fewer rowers and crews compete to reduce the administrative burden on staff. The school was also going to require multiple layers of sign-off for entries and substitutions instead of leaving that as the responsibility of one person.
The school declined to comment further when contacted by the Herald.
Gold medals and trophies stripped from Hamilton Boys’ High School rowers
2022 North Island Secondary Schools Championships
Boys U18 Novice Double Sculls
Boys U15 Coxed Octuple Sculls
Boys U15 Coxed Eight
Boys U18 Novice Coxed Quad Sculls
Derbyshire Shield for Overall Champion School
2022 Maadi Cup
Boys U18 Novice Coxed Four
Boys U17 Single Sculls
2023 North Island Secondary Schools Championships
Boys U18 novice coxed eight
Boys U17 Single Sculls
Amy Wiggins is an Auckland-based reporter who covers education. She joined the Herald in 2017 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.
