​Onslow College pair rowing for Maadi medals

PhotoCredit: Light and Motion Photography

Onslow College is a large co-ed school in Johnsonville, Wellington. Nestled in the shadows of Mt Kaukau, the school has produced several outstanding mostly land-based athletes through the years, such as former winter Olympian turned New Zealand multisport legend Richard Ussher.

But the school also has a proud rowing tradition dating back to the 1950s, and recent rowers that have represented New Zealand include Hayden Robertson (Onslow College Rowing 2009-2014), Jamie Hunter (2007-2010), Joe Wright (2007-2009) and current school rowing coach Tufi Sele (2005-2007).

Onslow is a regular entrant at the Maadi Cup regatta, holding their own against, and often beating, bigger rowing schools from the Waikato, Auckland and Canterbury.

This weekend the school is sending an eight-strong team to the 2018 Maadi Cup regatta in Twizel, including recent North Island Secondary Schools (NISS) U18 Girls Double Sculls winners Olivia Clark and Constance Stirling.

Olivia and Constance powered to victory in the U18 Double Sculls A final at the recent NISS regatta on Lake Karapiro.  
 
“That was a come-from-behind win for us,” said Olivia, “we were in third or fourth a lot of the way but towards the last 500m that we moved ahead of the others and held on for gold.”
 
Olivia and Constance won ahead of Westlake Girls’ High School in second, Wanganui Collegiate in third and St Peter’s School in fourth.
 
Their gold followed on from by their win in the same event at the previous Karapiro regatta, the Cambridge Town Cup in January.
 
As well as the U18 Double Sculls at Maadi, Olivia and Constance will be competing in the U18 Coxless Pair together and individually in the U18 Single Sculls.
 
The pair has had previous Maadi success together, winning bronze in the U16 Double Sculls in 2016 and making the U17 A Double Sculls final last year and finishing fifth. The bronze was Onslow College girls’ first Maadi medal in over 40 years.
 
Last year they were in a quad boat. “We were also part of a crew boat last year at Maadi and finished fourth in the U17 A final,” said Constance [missing out on third by less than two seconds]. “But one of the girls has got injured so we are now focussing on what we can do this year, which is the doubles.”
 
The original senior girls crew of Olivia, Constance, Maggie Booker, Alice Loretto and coxswain Ella Greenslade achieved A Finals, in 11 out of 12 major regattas since they started rowing in 2014.
 
Olivia also finished seventh behind Ashburton College’s Veronica Wall in last year’s U17 Single Sculls A final.
 
Onslow’s rowers are affiliated to the Wellington Rowing Club. Training on the water can sometimes be difficult, as Constance explained. “Wellington is known for wind so we don’t get out on the water a lot. We do a lot more land training, at our school gym and the rowing club, on the rowing machines and doing weights.”
 
“We don’t get to train on the water as much as other schools, but we spend a lot of time concentrating on our fitness and that is beneficial to us when we come up against them in tight races.”  
 
Olivia and Constance are hoping to earn NZ U19 Junior representative trials after the Maadi Cup regatta. If successful, they would go on to represent New Zealand at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Racice, Czech Republic later in the year. Olivia was selected into the NZ U18 team last year for the North versus South competition.
 
At the recent Club Nationals competing for the Wellington Rowing Club, Olivia and Constance competed in the senior grade in 12 races and were generally the youngest rowers in their events, competing against older and more experienced rowers. They made A finals for all their crew events and a B final for their singles.
Both are hoping to keep rowing when they finish school. “I want to get into a Regional Performance Centre when I leave school and train in that programme. There are four across New Zealand, Auckland, Waikato, Blenheim and Christchurch,” explained Olivia.

Beyond rowing, Olivia is looking at doing computer science study next year while Constance is looking into studying finance.
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Overall, the Onslow College rowers had a successful time at the recent NISS regatta finishing as the top equal Wellington school on the regatta points table alongside Queen Margaret College. Both placed slightly ahead of Wellington Girls' College and Wellington College.
 
The Onslow College rowing group finished the regatta with four A Finals, six B Finals and two C Finals with over half of the 40-strong rowing group represented in the Finals. 

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Onslow College's 2018 NISS rowing A finals results:
 
1st - GU18 Double
 Olivia Clark & Constance Stirling
 
4th - GU18 Pair
Olivia Clark & Constance Stirling
 
5th - GU18 Single
Olivia Clark
 
8th - BU15 Octuple
Sam Martin, Anthony Deng, Josh Clark, Jack Bacchus, Daniel Dolan, David Mowat, Max Westphall, Tarek Patchett and cox Ella Greenslade
 
Onslow College’s Maadi Cup regatta crews:
Senior Girls: Olivia Clark, Constance Stirling
Senior Boys: Liam Watters, Harry McCarthy, Sumer Harker, Oli Fahey, Georgia Henderson
U16 Girls: Issac Jelbert 
Maadi Cup 
The 2018 New Zealand Secondary School Championships (Maadi Cup) is at Lake Ruataniwha from 19th - 24th March (reserve day Sunday 25 March).
Over 2000 competitors from 120 schools are expected and around 10,000 people watch the finals from the bank.