PHOTO;  out on Lake Rotorua  this morning Chris Pearson urges the crews on in the final few days before NZ Secondary School Rowing Champs start on Monday.

PHOTO JPC and WHHS Girls Under 15 Quads train this morning at dawn. FRONT JPC crew ; stroke -Olivia Ashby, Angela O’Sullivan, Georgina Hyde, Grace Eriksen ,cox; Willow SperryJPC

BACKGROUND ; WHHS crew; stroke Stacey Tamblin, Alice West, Hannah Cox, Emma Cronshaw-Hunt, cox;Morgan McHale

The race is on...

Western Heights High School’s Under 15 Girls Quad is shortening the gap between themselves and their Rotorua rival; John Paul College. “ They halve the distance between the crews, every time they race” said coach Chris Pearson. “It was down to 1 ½ seconds at the North Island Secondary School Rowing Champs (NISS Champs)”.

The two Under 15 Girls Quads will compete at the 2011 Aon NZ Secondary School Rowing Champs at Lake Karapiro starting Monday. Pearson is coaching both crews. “They have to think about their races a lot more. To be fair to both- I can’t give them a race plan. They have to work it out themselves”.  At the  NISS Champs, JPC won the Gold, Silver went to Auckland Diocesan and the Bronze to first-timers WHHS. Asked which rival crews he’d be watching, Pearson replied “Everyone.”  There will be 4 heats. The 1^st boat of each heat will go to 2 semi finals and the next 4 boats will go to 2 repechages . The top 3 in each repechage will go through to the semi finals. “We need to be in the first five in the heats to progress” said Pearson ”and we have to get to the final before we start worrying”.

The JPC crew of Angela O’Sullivan, Georgina Hyde, Grace Eriksen and cox; Willow JPC includes stroke -Olivia Ashby. All Ashby wants is “to beat Auckland Dio’! ” adding  “We’ve checked the South Island crews times and we’re faster”. WHHS crew of Alice West, Hannah Cox, Emma Cronshaw-Hunt and cox Morgan McHale includes stroke Stacey Tamblin. Tamlin’s goal for her crew this  season was to “medal at the North islands and get into the A final at ‘Maadi’.”

Known as ‘Maadi’ the event will boast the biggest entry of any rowing regatta ever held in New Zealand. Over 1,400 crews representing some 120 plus New Zealand schools will take part . Rotorua Rowing Club has 5 schools competing ; RGHS, RBHS, WHHS, JPC and RLHS.The Maadi Cup is the trophy awarded to the  ‘Boys Under 18 coxed eight- oar’ event . During World War Two the 2^nd NZ Expeditionary Force based at Maadi Camp in Egypt competed in regattas on the Nile against local Egyptian rowing clubs. At a regatta held on 20 November 1943 the Maadi Camp Rowing Club "Kiwi" oarsmen beat the Cairo River Club by 11 points to 6 to win the Freyberg Cup, which they then gifted to the competitors. In return, as a token of friendship, Youssef Bahgat presented the Kiwis with a cup. This cup was offered to the NZ Rowing Association and was brought to New Zealand at the end of the war, renamed  the Maadi Cup and first raced for in 1947 at Wanganui.