All that glitters is gold

A golden glow surrounded the Marlborough contingent at the recent Maadi Cup secondary school rowing regatta at Lake Karapiro.

Crews from Marlborough Girls’ and Boys’ colleges picked up three medals at the historic regatta, one of the largest secondary school sports events in the Southern Hemisphere, all of them gold.

The MGC and MBC under-17 pair crews repeated their efforts at the previous South Island secondary school champs, both combinations claiming gold in back-to-back A finals.

Eliza Glover and Anna Hurren underlined their conditioning by surging past the Westlake Girls’ pair near the finish line to claim a narrow victory.

Logan Flight and Aidan Bennett set the early pace in their medal decider, maintaining an advantage throughout to prevail by around two seconds from a Glendowie College duo. Flight and Bennett added further glitter to their gold by recording a course record time.

Their efforts earned all four Marlborough athletes a trial for the under-18 South Island team.

The region’s third gold came from the MBC under-15 coxed four crew, comprising Charlie Bennett, Maisie Shenfield, Poppy Fernandez, Emma Eyles and coxswain Hayley Sutherland. After cruising to second in their heat, they stepped it up in the final, rowing away from the Rangi Ruru crew to cross the finish line over five seconds ahead, underlining the depth of talent among the MGC younger brigade.

MBC coach Clayton Lindstrom said his athletes “put in a big effort in a tough event”.

“They have done a lot of work preparing for the Maadi – up to 11 sessions a week during the second half of the season – it has been a big commitment.”

He had special mention for the under-18 four of Bennett, Flight, Louis Girling and Blake Campbell, with coxswain Jack Shaw, who became the first MBC crew to reach the A final in that event since 2016.

Also noteworthy was the effort of single sculler Bennett, who narrowly missed a medal in the under-17 A final.

“That was really big effort … it is probably one of the toughest events at the regatta.”

Clayton was satisfied with the results and is hoping to build numbers for next season, especially in the novice crews, “building a base for the next three or four years”.

MGC coach Joe Bennion said, “I’m pretty happy with the way it went”.

He was pleased with the way his squad performed against the bigger schools and especially the fact that they enjoyed success in different age groups.

“The aim this year was to start building a base at the younger level, without pushing them too far. It was cool to take a group of kids who built on last year and took it to a national level as well.

“The squad as a whole performed well, across all the age groups. Picking up the two medals was cool, but seeing the growth of the whole squad was what the coaching group and myself found most rewarding.”

Joe said it took a team effort from all concerned and the coaching team felt very well supported.  

“It takes more than a couple of people to have success – there were 10 parents who took time out to help us, plus heaps of generous sponsor support as well. A massive thank you to them all …

“Marlborough is a rowing-proud region and to be able to continue that tradition of fast crews is awesome.”

Leading results by Marlborough college athletes:

MBC

Boys’ under-17 pair (Logan Flight, Aidan Bennett) – GOLD

Boys’ under-17 single (Aidan Bennett) – 4th in A final

Boys’ under-16 coxed quad (Archie Saggers, Toby Randall, Matthew McLeod, Jesse Englefield, Jack Shaw – cox) – 7th in A final

Boys’ under-18 coxed four (Aidan Bennett, Blake Campbell, Louis Girling, Logan Flight, Jack Shaw – cox) – 7th in A final

MGC

Girls’ under-17 pair (Eliza Glover, Anna Hurren) – GOLD; (Georgette Herkt, Paige Wentworth) 6th in A final

Girls’ under-15 coxed four (Charlie Bennett, Maisie Shenfield, Poppy Fernandez, Emma Eyles, Hayley Sutherland – cox) – GOLD

Girls’ under-18 coxed four (Eliza Glover, Anna Hurren, Lily Smith, Iris Vavasour, Molly Hoban – cox) – 4th in A final

Girls’ under-17 coxed four (Eliza Glover, Anna Hurren, Celia Spencer, Georgette Herkt, Molly Hoban – cox) – 5th in A final

Girls’ under-15 eight (Charlie Bennett, Maisie Shenfield, Poppy Fernandez, Emma Eyles, Ruby Lindstrom, Daisy Lindstrom, Liv Horsenail, Casey Twidle, Hayley Sutherland – cox) – 5th in A final

Girls’ under-15 octuple sculls (Charlie Bennett, Maisie Shenfield, Poppy Fernandez, Emma Eyles, Izzy McLauchlan, Maggie Clark, Georgie Fissenden, Hannah Kole, Hayley Sutherland – cox) – 7th in A final