Hard road getting the boats up north

Otago Boys’ High School’s Maadi Cup squad members (from left) Tom Young (14), Mitchell Duncan (14...
Otago Boys’ High School’s Maadi Cup squad members (from left) Tom Young (14), Mitchell Duncan (14), Jack Holland-Spinks (15), Tate Drummond (16), Jamie McKenzie (coach), Sam Moore (15), Reuben McArrley (15), Thomas Ryan (15), Jack Webber (15), Riley Thompson (14), Michael Manson (15), Oliver Haig (14), Peter Keenan (14), Angus Hewett (15) and Peter Rowe (14) stand in front of boats from several Otago schools as they prepare to head to Lake Karapiro. Photo: Gregor Richardson.
The road to the Maadi Cup is quite literally a very long one.

Otago will send 98 crews to the regatta, which acts as the national championships for secondary school rowing.

With the regatta held at Lake Karapiro  in Waikato this year, one of the biggest challenges for those crews is getting their boats there.Otago Boys’ High School took many of Otago’s boats, while Columba College also took a trailer on the 1415km drive.

They headed away on Wednesday morning to be at the regatta, which starts on Monday.

"We’ve got a lot of boats from Otago schools across the region," Otago Boys’ High School coach Jamie McKenzie said.

"We’ve got Oamaru’s crews on here as well. St Hilda’s are here too. Columba’s boats headed away [earlier on Wednesday] as well.

"So there’s quite a haul of boats from Otago heading up north.

"It’s quite a long drive to get up there. It normally takes a couple of days.

"So it’s a pretty big operation for Dunedin schools to get up there."

The regatta, which runs until Saturday next weekend, sees about 2200 rowers from 127 different schools competing.

Otago Boys’ is taking  15 rowers, who will  make up 12 crews in the under 15, under 16 and novice categories.

Having been ruthless with their selection this year, McKenzie was going up aiming for nothing short of a medal for each crew.

He was in his first year coaching the school, having coached  the past three at John McGlashan College.

"It’s a reasonably new trend for Otago Boys’, a very young group this year.

"This has been a new era, a change of coaches for the school as well. We’ve taken a new direction.

"And very sculling based this year, rather than sweep oar rowing, which is a real change to the history of Otago Boys’ rowing as well."

The under 16 quad was a crew expected to do well, as was the under 15 octuple.

Meanwhile, 10 other Otago schools are sending crews to the event.

Having brought home 27 medals between them at the South Island championships two weeks ago, there are several prospects  for success.

The under 16 boys single sculls saw Otago claim first, second and third.

Jack McLaughlin, of John McGlashan College, led the way, while Mount Aspiring’s Sam Pearce and Logan Docherty, of St Kevin’s, also proved their worth.

John McGlashan also claimed a gold in the under 18 boys single sculls through Bradley Leydon, while the school’s under-15 coxed quadruple sculls and under 16 boys double sculls also won.

Columba College and Dunstan High School have several crews which are a good chance of winning medals, while Mount Aspiring is strong in the under-16 girls.

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