Grace Adams and Emma Stagg scored second place in the C Final of the under 18 double sculls yesterday. Photo supplied.With the competition closing in on its final two days of racing, some Ashburton College rowers are in a good position to push for podium finishes at the Maadi Cup.

The annual secondary schools’ championships, which are this year being held on Lake Karapiro, head into the penultimate day of racing this morning and the contingent from Ashburton have made sure their names are up there with the big guns and shooting for medals.

The Ashburton effort looks set to be led by the strong under 18 girls’ coxed quad sculls team consisting of Emma Stagg, Mollie Gibson, Aidan Elvines, Grace Adams and Harriet Leverton, who yesterday put themselves into the A Final with a dominant semi-final victory.

They will row for gold on finals day on Saturday, but two members of the foursome will already have had a shot at glory when Gibson and Elvines row in the final of the girls’ under 18 coxless pair oars just after lunchtime today.

Gibson will also take her place in the final of the girls’ under 18 single sculls after finishing second in her semi-final following victories in the heats and quarter finals.

Elvines finished seventh in her semi-final, the same race as Gibson, and will now contest the B Final.

Stagg and Adams got themselves a finals placing yesterday when they picked up second placing in the C Final of the under 18 double sculls.

© The Ashburton Guardian - 29 March 2019

The South Island Secondary Schools’ championships begin today on Mt Hutt.Close to 500 young mountain bike riders will take to Mt Hutt over the course of the next few days for the South Island Secondary Schools’ championships.

The event, which begins today, is expected to bring more than 1000 people into the Ashburton District for the weekend with teachers, supporters and family members expected to travel alongside competitors.

Bike Methven’s Clare Harden said that preparations for the event were well under control ahead of today’s opening events and that a huge base of supporters and volunteers from around the district have made that possible.

“It has been a huge process, but we’ve been incredibly lucky,” Harden said.

“We’re shaping up really well and the weather is starting to play ball too which is great.

“We just need a really good drying day today (Thursday) and we’ll be ready to go.”

The championships begin today with the enduro event which will see almost 300 competitors being ferried up to the top of Scott’s Saddle to race their way down the mountain before the downhill stage of the competition on Saturday.

Harden said running the event would also require a large amount of volunteer work and there would be more than 50 volunteers across the course over the weekend doing marshal work to ensure competitors are going in the right direction.

“Bike Methven has a huge member base which has helped a lot with getting people on board to help and we’ve had some people from the Mid Canterbury Mountain Bike Club helping us out as well which has been a big help.”

The competition is run under Cycling NZ rules and Harden’s role over the weekend will be ensuring that everything runs smoothly and working alongside the judges to ensure all requirements are being met.

The championships are open to the public for viewing and a free shuttle will be running from the information booth up the access road of Mt Hutt to ferry people to the best vantage points.

Racing begins today around 1pm through until 4.30pm and then tomorrow from 9am until 4.30 with a short break in the middle for lunch.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 28 March 2019

Mollie Gibson was one of Ashburton College’s stars at last year’s Maadi Cup, and this week she and her club-mates are back for another shot at Maadi glory. Photo Heather MackenzieAshburton College’s rowers are set to line up with the country’s best next week at the pinnacle event on the national secondary schools’ rowing calendar, the Maadi Cup.

They’ll be one of the smallest teams there when the regatta kicks off at Lake Karapiro on Monday, but that hasn’t held them back in the past, and coach Justin Wall said it won’t hold them back again this time.

Wall started the long drive up to the Waikato lake on Thursday, with Ashburton College’s seven boats in tow, while his young charges will fly up.

The school is sending a team of six rowers plus coxswains and they will compete in the girls’ under-18 pair, double, single and quad, and the boys’ under-17 single and double, and the under-16 single.

Last year, Ashburton College sent a team of nine rowers to the national event at Lake Ruataniwha and they came away with some outstanding results. Veronica Wall – who has now left school – won the under-18 single, the under-18 double with Mollie Gibson, and the under-18 quad with Gibson, Emma Stagg and Lara Biggs, while Gibson, Stagg, Biggs and Aidan Elvines were third in the under-17 quad, and Gibson won the under-17 single.

This year, Gibson is back for more and hopes are high that she’ll add more medals to her Maadi tally.

“We are looking forward to, obviously, good performances but we don’t want to say too much until we know what we have to do,” Wall said.

At recent regattas some of Ashburton’s young rowers have shown that they can do more than just keep up with the South Island’s best, and now they are eager to test their skills against the country’s best and hopefully finish on the podium.

The Maadi Cup regatta will begin with heats on Monday and Tuesday, with repecharges and quarter-finals to take place on Wednesday, followed by C and D finals, and semi-finals, on Thursday. Friday and Saturday are the big days where all the A and B finals will take place.

Wall’s hopeful all Ashburton rowers will feature in those A and B finals, and maybe inspire their school mates to follow in their footsteps in years to come.

Ashburton College’s rowing numbers have been down a bit over the past couple of years, but an open day just last weekend saw 18 prospective rowers head along for a look at what the sport entails.

“We are a small rowing school but we have been trying to increase numbers, and if most of the people coming to our open days come back, we will be doing well,” Wall said.

“We’ve got the lake, we’ve got the gear, we just need the numbers.”

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian- 22 March 2019