Emma Winders (Columba College) has reached two rowing finals and is on track to follow in her mother's footsteps.
Winders qualified in two single sculls semifinals at the Maadi Cup New Zealand secondary schools rowing championships at Lake Karapiro yesterday.
She finished third in the girls under-17 single sculls in 8min 06.49sec and fourth in the under-18 race in 8min 06.98sec.
Winders is the daughter of Christine Winders, who was a New Zealand lightweight champion in her competitive days.
It was a good day for Otago rowers and it looks likely that there will be a bigger medal haul than last year in the finals over the next two days.
Last year Otago rowers won 13 medals - five gold, three silver and five bronze - at the Maadi Cup regatta at Lake Ruataniwha.
There are more than 2000 rowers competing in the 67th annual Maadi Cup and because of the large numbers, C and D finals are being held for the for the first time.
The Dunstan girls under-15 double sculls of Eirlys Bond and Ella Galletly finished second in the semifinal in 8min 05.30sec to qualify for the final. The pair were joined by Lucy Geddes, Sydney Cook and cox Jack Bruce in the quadruple sculls and finished second in 7min 35.99sec.
The Otago Boys' under-15 quadruple sculls of Liam Guthrie, Tim Hogan, Ben Alexander, Aaron Roydhouse and cox Hamish Sinclair finished second in 6min 52.04sec.
Julia Fauth (St Kevin's) reached the final when she finished runner-up in the girls under-16 single sculls semifinal in 8min 27.69sec.
The Wakatipu High School boys under-18 double sculls of Richard McLachlan and Jack Swale finished fourth in the semifinal in 7min 20.87sec to qualify for the A final.
The school's boys under-16 double sculls of James Ramsay and Dylan O'Connor finished second in the semifinal in 7min 0.37sec.
Kavanagh College, the top rowing school in Otago, will be well represented in the finals. Anna O'Leary won the girls under-16 semifinal in 8min 21.91sec.
Older brother Jack O'Leary won the boys under-17 single sculls semifinal in 7min 28.68sec and was third in the boys under-18 semifinal in 7min 13.20sec.
The experienced combination of Zoe McBride and Hannah Duggan won the girls under-18 lightweight double sculls semifinal in 8min 7min 32.01sec and was third in the heavyweight under-18 double sculls in 7min 41.76sec.
They both reached the finals of the under-18 singles sculls when McBride won her semifinal in 8min 00.41sec and Duggan was fourth in 8min 05.76sec.
