Whanganui High School rowing squad’s best performance as North Island Secondary Schools Championships

Whanganui High School's under 15 girls coxed quad won gold at the North Island Secondary School Rowing Championships. Photo / Supplied

Whanganui High School’s rowing squad is riding into this year’s Maadi Cup regatta on a wave of momentum, as the school had its best-ever performance at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships (NISS).

The squad of 37 rowers and coxswains won two gold medals, three silvers and two bronzes at the three-day regatta at Lake Karapiro.

Of the teams, the U15 girls coxed quad and U18 novice coxed quad won gold, the U15 and U16 boys double’s won silver, as well as the U15 girls coxed octuple, while a second U18 novice coxed quad and the U17 boys coxed quad won bronze medals.

WHS director of rowing Axel Dickinson said it was the best the school had ever performed at the regatta.

He said schools were awarded points at the regatta for medal finishes, one point for bronze, three for silver, and five for gold.

Last year WHS scored 0 points, while this year they scored 21, good enough for an eighth-place overall finish.

Dickinson said for a small team in the stages of rebuilding, it was very impressive and above his expectations.

“The programme’s on a bit of a rebuild and it’s far ahead of schedule of where we anticipated we would be going into the season.”

He was brought in as the school’s rowing director last year.

“I’ve come into the role and tried to do it in a fashion that’s a little bit different.”

The intensive training season for high school rowers begins in August and runs up until the end of the Maadi Cup on April 1.

Traditionally, he said they would train 0 to 12 times a week in this period, but he reduced the schedule to around 5 to 6 times a week and worked to make training more flexible for kids with jobs and other commitments.

“We really tried to do it with a less is more approach.

“But it is fairly intensive. The work that they do when they’re at training, and a lot of competition within the squad really drives the purpose around what they’re doing,” he said.

He said the success of the team showed the change in training worked, and he thanked the squad for the effort they had put in.

“It’s a really big job to take and a real credit to the kids who got stuck in this year in building a good culture,” he said.

He hoped the success meant the squad would retain members for next year and carry the momentum into the Maadi Cup, and potentially better their results.

“There’s a couple of events that we knew were good events of ours that we didn’t run at the North Islands because we were trialling a couple of different boats,” he said.

Because of this, he was excited to get the regatta underway.

“If we translate the success from North Islands onto Maadi, it would be the best Maadi that Whanganui High has ever had.”

However, he said the event could go either way, as it was a long and gruelling regatta and how the teams dealt with it physically and mentally would determine how it all went.

The team will return to Lake Karapiro for the 2023 Aon Maadi Cup from March 27 to April 1.