Magnificent Maadi

31 Mar 2015

Tuesday 31 March 2015

From Monday, 23 March through to Sunday, 29 March, twenty-one rowers from King’s contested the final regatta of the season, the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Regatta, better known as the Maadi Cup.

2196 students from 122 schools competed in 52 different events, held over 6 busy days of racing.

The King’s rowers were entered in seven events, obtaining representation in the A final of every one, with gold medals being won in the Boys Under-15 Quads Sculls and the inaugural Boys Under-15 Octuple Sculls, and bronze in the Boys Under-18 Quad Sculls.

Results summary:

Boys' Under-15 Double Sculls

A Final – 5^th (Hunter Gaze, Grayson Gaze)

B Final – 2^nd (Lachie Cook, Rory Archer)

Boys' Under-16 Quad Sculls

A Final – 6^th (James Hall, Sam Lowe, Sam Ludbrook, Blaze Bellamy, Hunter Coldham)

Boys' Under-18 Quad Sculls

A Final – Bronze Medal (Tom Brown, Ollie Maclean, James Witters, Matt Ganley, Nick Yan)

Boys' Under-15 Quad Sculls

A Final – Gold Medal, bettering the previous best time for the event by 8 seconds (Sam Cummins, James Hall, Grayson Gaze, Hunter Gaze, Hunter Coldham)

King's College crushed their opposition to win the boys Under-15 Coxed Quadruple sculls final by more than three lengths. The crew, including the Gaze brothers Hunter and Grayson, had opened up a lead of more than one-and-a-half lengths by halfway and simply rowed away from the opposition to cruise to gold in 6:36.78.

A Final – 4^th (Lachie Cook, Harry Lee, Rory Archer, Harrison Elliott, Liam Avery)

Boys' Under-18 Double Sculls

A Final – 4^th (Tom Brown, Ollie Maclean)

B Final – 7^th (Matt Ganley, James Witters)

Boys' Under-17 Quad Sculls

A Final – 5^th (Sam Cummins, Ollie Maclean, Tom Weatherall, Adam Drake, Nick Yan)

Boys' Under-15 Octuple Sculls

A Final – Gold Medal (James Hall, Lachie Cook, Sam Cummins, Grayson Gaze, Hunter Gaze, Rory Archer, Tom Spillane, Harry Lee, Hunter Coldham)

The Under-15 programme concluded with the finals of a new event - the high speed Coxed Octuple Sculls. King's College gave a textbook demonstration of octuple rowing to ease to a one-and-a-half length victory from Hamilton Boys High. Kings had opened up clear water on the opposition a little after 500m and were never threatened to win in 6:38.90.

It was a great way to finish what has been a very positive season for the club. The good results in the junior events augur well for the future.

Nick Lloyd
Head of Rowing