Rowing: High school powerhouses line up for Maadi Cup

The Hamilton Boys' High U18 coxed four are in winning form for the Maadi Cup. Photo / Getty Images

Rowing powerhouses Hamilton Boys' High School and St Margaret's College of Christchurch have the chance to win a prestigious double at the Maadi Cup regatta today.

Crews from each school yesterday won the under-18 coxed four titles at Karapiro. Hamilton took the Springbok Shield, narrowly beating Auckland Grammar with Napier Boys' High in third, while St Margaret's overpowered Waikato Diocesan to win by seven seconds. Craighead Diocesan came third in the near-perfect conditions.

The Hamilton crew will be back in the coxed eight today rowing for the Maadi Cup, following on from a North Island secondary school champs gold medal a fortnight ago.

St Margaret's are also looking strong in the girls eight and will row for the Levin Jubilee Cup from the favoured lane five after qualifying fastest in the heats. Craighead and Waikato Diocesan are also tipped to be among the medals.

In the Maadi race Napier Boys' are the dark horses. The school has never won the trophy but qualified fastest in heats and performed strongly in the club nationals this month.

The crew opted to travel to Twizel to row in the club event rather than compete in the North Island school champs and have been lying low at their base in Te Awamutu after qualifying for the final straight from their heat.

Maadi races are famously tight and other schools in the mix include Auckland Grammar, Westlake Boys' and the South Island champions Christ's College, who won the cup last year.

Auckland Grammar School drew first finals blood in the under-18 pairs, beating Hamilton Boys' High School with Westlake Boys' third.

Kavanagh College showed they are a team to be reckoned with in the small boats. Jack O'Leary took out the boys under-17 single in 7:18.72 to edge out Nelson College's Olly Stephens.

Kavanagh again featured in the girls' under-18 double with Zoe McBride and Hannah Duggan winning the final. The school also picked up silver in the boys' under-16 single.

In the boys' under-16 quad St Peter's College won and the crew were presented with their medal by Olympic champion Hamish Bond.

St Bede's won the U17 eights ahead of Hamilton Boys' High School. If the St Bede's combination stays together next season they will be ones to watch out for in the 2014 Aon Maadi Cup being held at Lake Ruataniwha. This crew will compete again today in the boys' U18 eights, which will prove good blooding experience in the big-time event.

The boys' U18 quad was won by Tauranga Boys' College, stroked by 2013 Australian Youth Olympic Festival competitor Daniel Bridgwater. His crew of Roger, Parry, Noyce and cox Craven raced home a boat length in front of St Kentigern College and St Peter's.

In the U18 girls' pair, St Margaret's College won in 7:39.38 and Craighead were second in a time of 7:52.65.

The St Margaret's crew was made up of Holly Greenslade, who has represented New Zealand at the Australian Youth Olympic Festival in early 2013 and the 2012 Junior World Rowing Championships. Holly and her teammate Alice Darry will hope to get the nod from the junior selectors for a trial.