2019 Aon Maadi Cup - Day One

The 2019 Aon Maadi Cup (New Zealand Secondary School Championships) is being hosted by Karapiro Rowing Inc. at Lake Karapiro, Cambridge from 25 - 30 March, with Sunday 31 March morning reserved as a spare day in case of bad weather.

Run by the NZSSRA and Rowing NZ, the Aon Maadi Cup is the national championships for school rowing. Being New Zealand's largest rowing regatta, it's the most prestigious event on the school rowing calendar with six days of racing.

A record 131 schools are entered in this year’s regatta with 2,166 athletes across 50 events.

Results from all races today can be found at rowit.nz, as well as a full event schedule and entries.

New to the Aon Maadi Cup or back after a period away were Ngaruawahia High School, Nga Taiatea Wharekura, Taikura Rudolf Steiner School, Raphael House, St Bernard’s College and St Patrick’s College Silverstream. Travelling the furthest to attend to attend the regatta was Southland Girls’ High School of Invercargill.

Today’s racing schedule included 142 races from 8:00am to 5:24pm. Karapiro Rowing Inc. (KRI) had over 64 volunteers assisting with the day’s programme across umpire and safety boats, coxswain weigh-in stations, a boat marshal hut, the finish tower and the start pontoon.

South Island secondary schools were off to a strong start today with southern athletes winning heats across multiple events.

In the boy’s U15 octuple 14 crews took to the water across two heats, with Hamilton Boys’ High School and Christ’s College taking first place, each moving to the final, with all other crews moving to a repechage.

The boy’s U18 novice eight is the smallest event of the regatta with only seven crews entered, with the boy’s and girl’s U17 single scull the regatta’s largest events.

The boy’s U17 single scull saw nine heats today. Angus Kenny of John McGlashan College took first place in heat one, with Joel Clayton-Greene of Hauraki Plains College taking first place in heat two. Josh Dent of St. Thomas of Canterbury, Arie Magasiva of St Patrick’s College, Loic Billoud of Wakatipu High School, Samuel Wield of Christchurch Boys’ High School, Evan Williams of Takapuna Gramma School, Matthew Smith of Shirley Boys’ High School and Theodore Giannakogiorgos of Burnside High School all took first place in their respective heats and move into the event’s quarter finals.

The second biggest event of the regatta, the girl’s U17 single scull heats were spread across eight races with Hauraki Plains College’s Emma Gordon, St Kevin’s College’s Hannah Cunningham, Wellington Girls’ College Alice Fahey, Mt Albert Gramma School’s Holly Chaafe, Burnside High School’s Sharni Ross, Timaru Girls’ High School’s Molly Clayton, Wentworth College’s Parekura Kellow and Whangarei Girls’ High School’s Yvette Hendrikse all taking first place in their heats and progressing to the quarter final.

In the girl’s U18 double scull, crews took to the water across six heats with the first four placing crews progressing to quarter-finals, last placing crews being eliminated and remainders moving to repechages. Craighead Diocesan School, Tauranga Girls’ College, St Peter’s School Cambridge, Avonside Girl’s High School, St Paul’s Collegiate School and St Hilda’s Collegiate all placed first in their respective heats.

Sponsor support

Aon has been a major partner to Rowing NZ for over 14 years, and the Aon Maadi Cup continues to be proudly sponsored by Aon.

Aon is the leading provider of insurance broking, risk management and associated services both in New Zealand and globally. They pride themselves on protecting all different kinds of Kiwis, from young families through to businesses and farms of all types and sizes. With over 950 staff located in offices spanning from Kerikeri to Invercargill, Kiwis will be sure to find a local Aon broker no matter where they live.

‘’Aon have supported rowing in New Zealand for almost 15 years, and it’s a relationship we’re both grateful for and immensely proud of. Fostering secondary school rowing is incredibly important – it obviously generates talent for future New Zealand representatives, but more importantly it helps grow New Zealand’s youth into great people. Aon have never been the type to provide us with financial support and walk away – they genuinely care about our sport and athletes, and are familiar faces at our regattas across the country. In recent years their support has stretched to working with secondary schools directly and providing much needed equipment.

The Aon Maadi Cup remains one of the biggest secondary school sporting events in New Zealand and we’re proud to work alongside Aon to bring it to life each year.’’

Simon Peterson, Rowing NZ Chief Executive

The event’s programme is available to view online at rowingnz.kiwi, maadi.co.nz and via the Rowing NZ App. A live webcast of finals will be available from Friday onward via the Rowing NZ App and maadi.co.nz