Successful week on the water for St Margaret’s College

Photos credit: Steve McArthur To view more photos of Maadi Cup visit and like: https://www.facebook.com/RowingCelebration?fref=ts

Christchurch’s St Margaret’s College’s 47-strong rowing team returned from last week’s Maadi Cup with a cluster of gold medals around their necks.

St Margaret’s crews won three girls’ finals at the annual regatta held at Lake Karapiro near Hamilton, including winning the U18 coxed eight final for the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup.

In choppy conditions, St Margaret’s beat Epsom Girls’ Grammar School and Waikato Diocesan School into second and third.

As well as winning the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup, the school won the U17 eights and the U17 fours, and won silvers in the U8 pair, U16 four and U15 octuple events.

St Margaret’s rowing co-ordinator Trudy Keys said the school’s week on the water was special for all those involved and it follows on from recent Maadi Cup success.

“Rowing is one of our major summer sports and it is something that we have done well at over the years,” she said.

“The last four years have been particularly successful. Prior to that we had a few years when things were a bit quiet, but now we’ve come back again. “

This was the U18 eight’s third win in four years, following their last victory in 2013. Waikato Diocesan School won the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup last year with St Margaret’s finishing third.

It was a fantastic week for gold medal rowers Star Davidson, Izzy Goddard, Millie Borren and Georgia Voice.

“These four girls, plus the coxswain Grace Cocks, were in all three winning boats.”

The U17 four crew of Star Davidson, Izzy Goddard, Millie Borren, Georgia Voice and Grace Cocks set a new course record of 7.15.01.

“The two eight crews qualified at the start of the week straight through to Friday’s finals and the fours had heats and then a semi-final on Thursday. The U17 eights final was on the morning of the U18s final, so the girls were tired but elated at the end.”

What are the logistics of sending 47 girls and nine coaches and support staff up from the South Island to Maadi Cup?

“We had a three-day camp down at Twizel the weekend before Maadi Cup and we packed up all our boats and equipment on Monday and the boats were driven up after that.

“We flew from Christchurch to Auckland on Friday and arrived in Hamilton late Friday night.

All our boats were unloaded off the trailer before we even got there and the girls just had to turn up on Saturday morning and put them all together.”

Training is ongoing throughout summer, and they train six days a week with three sessions a week on the water on the Waimakariri River at Kaiapoi.

“We probably spend less amount of time than other schools on the water because of the logistics of getting out to the river, and then the rest of the time we do land-based training on ergometers and in the gym or out running.”

Trudy said there’s also a lot of crossover with many of the rowers playing other sports such as netball and hockey.

“One of our rowers, Lily Marshall,, based on her Maadi Cup results has qualified for a New Zealand junior trial and she had also been given a New Zealand netball trial.

Trudy said that St Margaret’s has a healthy rowing rivalry with other local schools, such as Rangi Ruru and Christchurch Girls’, but weren’t able to make it official this year at the South Island rowing championships that were abandoned on the second day due to high winds.

With their haul of three gold medals and three silver medals, St Margaret’s were named as the top ranked South Island school at the Maadi Cup. 122 schools and over 2000 competitors attended the regatta.

---