College sport: Tough training regime pays off for Hamilton

Rowing

Training twice a day, including early in the mornings for six days a week for six months, may have given the rowers from Hamilton Boys High the winning edge.

Either that or their coach, former Olympian Ian Wright, has the magic touch.

He had the Hamilton Boys' crews at their peak at Lake Karapiro, breaking the magical six-minute mark for the Maadi Cup under-18 eights twice, including in the final where they led all the way to beat defending champs Wanganui Collegiate in 5m 53s.

"I doubt whether many people would have done that much," Wright said.

"They've certainly done the work. It's basically a Waikato premier programme."

For Wright, the win added to a string of outstanding coaching achievements over the past four years. He has coached the winning crew in three out of the past four Maadi Cups and achieved the Maadi Cup-Springbok Shield double twice, at St Paul's and now Hamilton Boys'.

Hamilton Boys' won seven golds at the regatta and gained medals in every age group.

"It's excellent, amazing. It's been the goal for four years," said Wright. "I wanted a nice clinical display and they put it on."

He hadn't seen the start of the final from being too nervous and only watched them from around the 500m mark where they were totally dominant.

Six of the eights crew have been named to trial next week for the junior men's eight to go to the world junior rowing championships in Brandenburg, Germany, from August 3-6.

There were lean pickings for Auckland schools at the regatta. King's College were the most successful from the region, winning five A finals, three in the girls.

St Kentigern also performed well, including finishing third in the Maadi Cup race.

Westlake Boys' won the under-15 coxed quad and were third in the Springbok Shield under-18 four, albeit via promotion.

Volleyball

Bay of Plenty continued its domination of the sport with both boys and girls titles and runners-up places going to schools from the region.

In the division one girls competition, Tauranga Girls' finished as top school and Otumoetai second.

Auckland's McAuley High and Hamilton's Hillcrest High were third equal.

Otumoetai won the boys' division one final ahead of Tauranga Boys'. Westlake Boys' were third.

Tennis

The national teams events start on Saturday in Wellington. All of last year's winners and finalists are back in the three grades - boys, girls and mixed.

St Kentigern and St Peters School (Cambridge) are in all three divisions of the tournament. St Kentigern won the girls' section over St Cuthberts on a countback last year and St Peter's beat Kristin in the mixed.

* Results

ARCHERY

TEAMS EVENT
(Nicholson Park)

Kings A (M. Narula, C. MacLaren, M. Chan, H. Mao) 2065, 1, Kings B (H. Leech, S. Kawamoto, J. Zhang, D. Lui) 1758, 2, Baradene (E. Jones, E. Lamont, M Gloyne, M. Williams) 1694, 3.

* * *

GOLF

AUCKLAND PREMIER

Final: Westlake Boys 37 (W. McFarlane 11, K. Choi 8, S. Ho Lee 9 1/2, Y. Wan Kim 8 1/2) bt St Kentigern College (J. Song 7, J. Mann 10, D. Field 8 1/2, M. Jung 9 1/2) 35.

* * *

KAYAKING

NZ SECONDARY SCHOOLS WHITEWATER CHAMPS
(Bay of Plenty)

K1, junior women: H. Curtis (Otumoetai College) 1, J. Housiaux (Otaki College) 2, K. McKenzie (St Mathews Collegiate) 3.

Junior men: M. Gibson (St Peters College) 1, B. Munro (Tauranga Boys) 2, C. Whitehead (Te Puke HS) 3.

Intermediate men: B. Nicholas (Tauranga Boys College) 1, I. Borrows (Australia) 2, E. Hodson (Australia) 3.

Senior women: S-J Luoni (Gore HS) 1, L. Jones (Otumoetai College) 2, O. Meehan (Tauranga Girls) 3.

Senior men: A. Robinson (Tauranga Boys College) 1, C. Atkinson (Wairarapa College) 2, H. Gibson (St Peters College) 3.

* * *

ROWING

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

National junior trialists (Lake Ruataniwha, April 16-17).-

Men: C. Finlay, A. Grenside, G. Hill, S. Taylor, K. Manns, J. Armstrong (Hamilton BHS), J. Sullivan, D. Karena, (Queen Charlotte), G. McEwen, J. Peters (Wanganui Collegiate), B. Callesen (Christs College), W. Joyce (Westlake Boys), J. Townsend (Christchurch Boys), J. Uru (James Hargest High), Simon Watson (Wanganui High), B. Bowles (Burnside High), T. Middleton (coxswain, Wanganui Collegiate), P.Walter (coxswain, Hamilton Boys), D. Quigley (coxswain, St Kentigern).

Reserves: J. Pehi (Hamilton Boys), J. Lester (Hamilton Boys), H. McQueen (Westlake Boys), J. Pethica (Auckland Grammar Rowing Club), E. Wiley (Wellington College), A. Webster (Bethlehem College), T. Hoogeveen (Hauraki Plains College), J. Watherston (Christs College).

Women: R. Arbuckle, K. Devoy, L. Jerratt, A. Jacques (Sacred Heart Girls College, Hamilton), K. Thomas (Craighead Diocesan School), K. Laming (Craighead Diocesan School), S. Nixon (Rangi Ruru), K. Wyatt (Rangi Ruru), L. Fischer (Rotorua Lakes), E. Travis (Rotorua Lakes), R. Ryall (Kings College, Auckland), O. Sceats (Gisborne Girls), L. Clayton-Greene (Tauranga Girls College), A. Winchcombe (Mt Maunganui College).

Reserves: R. Johnson (Rangi Ruru), S. Pigou (Rangi Ruru), A. Burnside (Rangi Ruru), H. Dawson (Rangi Ruru), A. Tuckey (Kings College), D. Aubrey (St Margarets College).

* * *

WAKA AMA

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
(Rotorua)

W1 boys under-19 championship, final: M. Kemp (Gisborne BHS) 1, T. Happy (Rutherford College) 2, S. Moon (Bay of Islands College) 3. Girls, final: S. Tureia (Edgewater College) 1, I. Moses (Te Rangi Aniwaniwa) 2, D. Destounis (Gisborne GHS) 3.

Div 1 boys 500m championship, final: Gisborne BHS 1, Te Awamutu College 2, Bay of Islands College 3. Girls, final: Lytton HS 1, Gisborne GHS 2, Hukarere Girls School 3.

Div 1 boys 250m championship, final: Rotorua BHS 1, Gisborne BHS 2, Whangarei BHS 3. Girls, final: Lytton HS 1, Gisborne GHS 2, Whakatane HS 3.

THIS WEEK TODAY, Waterpolo, girls national champs, Lower Hutt until monday.

SATURDAY, mountainbiking, national individual champs, Levin until Sunday. Tennis, national secondary schools teams final, Renouf Tennis Centre, Wellington, until Monday.