With three golds, three silvers and one bronze medal, St. Peter’s finished 4th overall in New Zealand, our highest placing since 2019. The achievements didn’t stop there! St. Peter’s were also the top placed Waikato school in the Star Trophy points competition, and runners up in the competition for the President’s Scull for champion sculling school, just one point behind the winners.
Our school was well represented with the largest team at the regatta, with 47 rowers qualifying for finals, 15crews racing in the A finals and 9 crews in the B finals. Another 15 rowers were less than three seconds away from qualifying for finals, including our secondU15 girls octuple which narrowly missed out on their A final in a closely fought repechage, showcasing the excellent depth in the younger age-groups of our programme.
Congratulations to our medallists:
Gold – GU18 2x – Molly McClintock, Olivia Henry
Gold and new record time – BNov 4x+ – Mattias Everett, Bradey van der Bijl, Josh Garrett, Matt Carey, coxswain Jade Noonan
Gold – BNov 2x – Josh Garrett, Matt Carey
Silver – BNov 8+ – Bradey van der Bijl, Matt Carey, Mattias Everett, Josh Garrett, Theo Anthony, Nick Rothery, Oscar Duley, Kieran Lawson, coxswain Jade Noonan
Silver – BNov 4x+ – Sam Wilson, Andrew Harris, Kieran Lawson, Nick Rothery, coxswain Sophie Sinclair
Silver – BNov 2x – Mattias Everett, Bradey van der Bijl
Bronze – GU18 4x+ – Olivia Henry, Molly McClintock, Abby Wilson, Neve Watkins, coxswain Darcie Granwal
Congratulations also to ourrowers who earned their ‘top ten badges’ for U18 events:
Abby Wilson, Bruno Fuller, Caitlyn Silcock, Carter Taylor, Darcie Granwal, Kate Gardner, Leo O’Reilly, Lily Gundesen, Lucy Crampton, Molly McClintock, Neve Watkins, Olivia Henry, Tito Hay, Tristan Gillbanks, Zoe Phillips.
We had several crews narrowly miss out on podium finishes. Our U15 girls double of Meg Cannon and Molly Scott finished just 0.2 seconds behind the bronze medallists after an incredible sprint for the line. Our U16 boys double of Max Fielder and Jakob Kampenhout also finished fourth, beating NISS medallists in the process.
Our novices put a St. Peter’s boys eight on the Maadi podium for the first time since 1994, ending a 31-yearhiatus. Our crew was the closest they have been all season to the winners from King’s, a crew coached by St. Peter’s alumni Harry Lynch. Earlier in the term Mr Baird spoke to our rowers about responding to crew selection with determination and resilience. Our second crews in the boy’s novice double and quad put this message into action perfectly, earning silver medals behind our first crews in both events.
Our U18 girls double of Molly McClintock and Olivia Henry won in convincing fashion, adding their names to atrophy which includes former winners St. Peter’s alumni Beckie Leigh, coach Krissy Froude, and NZ representatives including Zoe McBride, Jackie Kiddle, Caroline Evers-Swindell and Jackie Gowler.
In the prestige events of the regatta, our U18 girls eight had their best row of the season in the repechage, just 1.77 seconds off beating the NISS bronze medallists for the last spot in the A final. Our boys racing in the ‘Springbok Four’ qualified for thefinals – the first time a St. Peter’s crew has achieved this since 2008.
We had several rowers substitute into crews at late notice to cover for illness, doing their best in the circumstances to enable their teammates to keep racing.
The success of our Maadi team is a result of the efforts of everyone who has been involved this season, from teammates who have trained and competed alongside each other, to experience drowers who have patiently taught our novices, to the parents supporting and volunteering off the water to ensure our rowers can be at their best on raceday. We hope everyone involved enjoyed the regatta, and that the learnings and experiences support our students well beyond the rowing environment.
Photos from the regatta are available here, with photos from the dinner available here.
If you would like to download any other photos from throughout the season, please do so before these links expire: