Rowing: College crews ready for Maadi Cup

Rotorua high schools will be in action at the Maadi Cup Regatta near Cambridge next week. Photo / NZME.

All the early mornings and tough training sessions will be worth it when Rotorua's best young rowers take to Lake Karapiro.

The Maadi Cup Regatta, also known as the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Championships, will be held at Lake Karapiro near Cambridge next week starting on Monday.

Rotorua Rowing Club captain Glen Reichardt said local crews, numbering about 50 rowers, had been working hard for the event.

"This is the big one. This is what they have been training all year for and being up here at Karapiro it makes it easier to attend," he said. "There is nothing like it, there are 2100 rowers there next week and 160-odd reserves."

Crews from Western Heights High School, John Paul College, Rotorua Girls' High School and Rotorua Lakes High School will be competing.

Last year, a Western Heights High School crew made the A final of the prestigious under-18 boys' coxed eights, which determines the winner of the Maadi Cup each year.

Reichardt said, while that crew had moved on from high school, there was still some top rowers racing next week from Rotorua.

Three Rotorua crews scored medals at the recent North Island Secondary Schools Rowing Championships at Karapiro, showing good signs for the Aon Maadi Cup.

The Western Heights under-18 girls' quad led the way, winning gold at the North Islands, with Hannah Cox, Sofia Morrell, Ariana Lee and Alie Henderson-Corporal in the boat.

Other medal winning crews included John Paul College's dynamic duo of Andre Le Lievre and Connor Broughton and the Rotorua Girls' High pairing of Emily Cooper and Kirsty Lickfold.

Reichardt, who will step down from coaching at the Rotorua Rowing Club at the end of this season, after 11 years in the role, said it was always hard to predict medals at Maadi but he hoped for the best. "We wish all the rowers luck and hopefully we have some good results during this regatta."

He said they were taking their boats up to Karapiro last night and would be setting up over the weekend. Heats start on Monday with quarter-finals on Wednesday, semifinals on Thursday and finals on Friday and Saturday.

Hamilton Boys' High School won the Maadi Cup last year in Twizel.