Mollie Gibson,. Photo supplied.Ashburton College rowers are coming home from the Maadi Cup with their heads held high, but without any medals around their necks.

The annual national secondary school championship regatta was this year held at Lake Karapiro in the Waikato and the biggest event on the national rowing calendar wrapped up on Saturday.

One of the small Ashburton team’s biggest medal hopes was Mollie Gibson in the girls’ under-18 single sculls. But she wasn’t able to reproduce the winning form which saw her take out the under-17 title in 2018, finish sixth in the under-18 final this year.

In the same event, Aidan Elvines made the B final where she placed sixth.

Gibson and Elvines also combined to race in the girls’ under-18 coxless pair, and they finished eighth in the A final, while the girls’ under-18 coxed quad sculls crew of Emma Stagg, Gibson, Elvines, Grace Adams and Harriet Leverton were fourth in their A final, after winning their semi-final.

Earlier in the regatta Stagg and Adams were second in the under-18 double sculls C final.

In the under-16 single sculls, Ged Wall won the D final, while in the under-17 single sculls Patrick Dekker was third in the G final.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 April 2019