2005 AON Maadi Cup - the greatest ever?

by Richard Gladwell on 17 Mar 2006 In years to come the spectators at the 2005 AON Maadi Cup may recall the day they witnessed the renaissance of New Zealand’s Eight Oar rowing on the shores of Lake Karapiro.

Some of the sages of New Zealand Rowing will tell you that New Zealand will never be a world force in the Eights until crews go under six minutes for the Maadi Cup. Hamilton Boys went through that sound barrier not once, but twice during Maadi 2005, with magnificent time of 5ms 53 secs in the Maadi Cup. They cracked the same magical mark in the heats and were joined by Wanganui Collegiate in the Finals. Conditions were calm for both.

For coach Ian Wright, it added to a string of outstanding coaching achievements over the past four years – coach of the winning crew in three out of the last four Maadi Cups and achieving the Maadi Cup, Springbok Shield double, twice during that time – and in two different schools. Clearly he is a Super-Coach who can deliver the goods.

Hamilton Boys won seven Gold Medals at the regatta, all in sweep oar events, medalled in every age group, and were winners of the Star Trophy for top overall school.

However it was the success of the Hamilton Boys senior squad in taking the Gold medal in the Eights and Fours and then silver in the BU18 Pair that overshadowed the other excellent results for the school. It was no surprise that six of the Championship Eight, plus the cox, were named as NZ Junior Trialists and other two named as reserves.

Rangi Ruru returned to sit at the head of the Girls Championship Eights after a break of four years – before which they won ten consecutive Eights Championship events. Sacred Heart Girls College came within half a boat length of winning their first ever Levin Jubilee Cup with defending champions, St Margarets third. Sacred Heart Girls also took the Dawn Cup (Championship Fours) for the first time and were the top medal winning Girls school. Coach Dave Thompson, take a bow!

Top rowers in the regatta were Joseph Sullivan (Queen Charlotte) and Rebecca Ryall (Kings College) who won three gold medals each, with Sullivan repeating his triple gold effort of 2004 (except this time he didn’t have to sandwich it into 30 minutes!). Sullivan won his medals in three Championship events – the Mens Pair, Mens Single and Mens Double Scull, and finished 4th in the Quadruple Sculls Championship. Full marks to coach Dave Bugler and also to Daniel Karena who finished second to Sullivan in the Single Sculls and paired with him in the Double Sculls and Pair. Sullivan and Karena were also named as NZ Junior Trialists.

Ryall medalled in the Championship events for the Single Sculls, Double Sculls and Quadruple Sculls – and Kings College rowers turned in a tremendous effort in winning this triple crown. Only St Margaret’s have won two Championship sculling events in the past five years – and no-one has won all three in this period. Also great coaching effort from Kings’ Greg Reid. Kings also competed across the board – sweep and sculling, in boys and girls events; and medalled in both genders and disciplines.

A gold medal should have been awarded to the organisers of the event, who although aided by a fantastic stretch of weather, only got behind for one period in the regatta, and soon caught up. As this was the largest ever Maadi Cup, there was plenty of potential for mishap, however the organisation ran like clockwork.

As an event it stepped up to a new level with the Superscreen – so spectators could see events live from start to finish. Off the course viewers and supporters could see a live webcast of the racing. On the final when the system fired up in the morning there were 40 viewers waiting to log-in!! The upgrading of the course to eight lines, made a huge difference to the event – both in the intensity and competition in the racing and the spectacle.

Much comment was made about the size and duration of the regatta, the real focus should be on celebrating that the sport and the regatta is growing and has reached the stellar heights that were seen this week. Clearly some constraints will have to be introduced before the boat park runs out of space, and the challenge will be to preserve the open participation feature of the event, which gives it a special character and spontaneity, while pushing the competition levels.

The 2005 AON NZ Secondary Schools National Championships lifted rowing to a new level on all fronts. It is a very rare day indeed when you walk away from a regatta and can’t think of something that could have been improved, but this was one of them. For New Zealand Rowing the challenge is to pull this talent through into 2008 and 2012 Olympics and stop the high attrition rate that is the shame of the sport.

Clearly new thinking is required. There are signs that this is happening, however the real test will be at the next Club Nationals when we see how many of the rowers from this regatta have crossed the Great Divide into club racing.

If the rowers, schools, coaches, clubs and Rowing New Zealand can mange that transition, then maybe Kiwis can start getting ready for some more glory days in the big boats at the highest level.