Rowing: Anger over Maadi Cup 'farce'

1.00pm

Angry Bay of Plenty rowing coaches are pushing for a drastic overhaul of the national secondary schools championships after last week's regatta in Twizel turned into "a complete farce".

Horrific conditions on Lake Ruataniwha and a reluctance to use Sunday's layday created timetable clashes and forced crews to scratch from finals, or race back-to-back down the 2000m course.

Glacial water temperatures also resulted in crews suffering hypothermia.

Tauranga Girls' College coach Lance Stowe said the week-long regatta, the largest secondary schools sports event in the southern hemisphere, turned into a debacle.

"What they did (re-jigging the draw) cost us 3-4 medals without a doubt. It was a complete balls-up," Stowe said.

"It was run by a bunch of amateurs. I know they're people who give their time for nothing but the Maadi Cup is a far greater event than how it ended up."

Rowing New Zealand chief executive Craig Ross was in Twizel as Mount Maunganui College coach and was staggered at how poorly the event was organised.

Problems arose on Friday when high winds whipped up Lake Ruataniwha, forcing racing to be cancelled. Saturday was worse, with medal races cancelled after boats were swamped.

Instead of using Sunday's layday, organisers attempted to cram the rest of the programme into a two-hour window of clear water on Saturday afternoon.

B and C finals were shelved and 1000m races were contemplated until Ross stepped in.

"It was a debacle. No one can do anything about the weather but Sunday was a designated layday yet there seemed huge resistance on the part of the organisers to use it," he said.

The schedule was abandoned and as many finals as possible were compressed into Saturday afternoon, with a handful of races overflowing into Sunday in "pristine" conditions.

Crews were scratched from finals -- including Ross' own daughter Danielle -- as schools were forced to target their best events.

Tauranga Girls' College took a more mercenary approach, ferrying rowers from the finish line back to the start by car to race every final.

"We got one of our senior rowers, Rochelle Haden, back to the starting blocks as all the other crews were lined up ready to go," Stowe said.

"She got bronze (with Michelle Managh in the under-19 double), which was a fantastic effort considering.

"But it cost us big-time. It was effectively a year's work down the toilet and we shelled out the best part of $70,000 to get our squad to Twizel, only for some of our main medal hopes to end up bitterly disappointed."

Mount Maunganui dropped out of the under-19 girls' quad sculls -- where they were a strong chance of a medal -- so two rowers could race fresh in the under-17 novice four, where they had a better chance of gold.

The sacrifice paid off as Emily Drake, Amy-Lea Winchcombe, Alysha Johnson, Genevieve Armstrong and cox Emma Guthrie took the A final, winning Mount College's first Maadi Cup medal.

"It was a huge call, the toughest I've made in my life -- how the hell do you tell your own daughter she has to give up her shot at a medal?" Ross said.

"What really made me angry was that Sunday was beautiful. If they'd just stuck to the programme everyone would have had a fair crack."

Ross had no official sway in Twizel, despite his status.

Secondary schools rowing is affiliated to Rowing New Zealand but makes it own rules. That looks set to change.

"There is no longer any need for a separate secondary schools rowing body and I'll be pushing for the establishment of a secondary schools youth commission to come under our control."

"I'm sure there will be some kicking and screaming but I'd say 95 per cent of the schools at Twizel who were gutted by what happened will back any change."

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES