Two golds for Westlake Boys at Maadi Cup

Five Westlake Boys rowers won double gold medals at the prestigious Maadi Cup national secondary schools regatta.

Josh Morris, Adam Leece, Sam Bird, Donovan Pivac and Cole Hampson-Tindale (cox) topped the podium in both the U15 coxed four and as members of the U15 coxed eight crew. Others in the eights were Toby Cleghorn, George Langley, Josh McGill and Coby Kerr.

Westlake’s U18 coxed eight came third in the Maadi Cup race while the U17 and U18 coxed fours also claimed bronzes in their A finals at the event raced on Lake Karapiro.

The school made nine other A finals and nine B finals with two wins in B finals.

The results saw Westlake Boys place third on points among boys’ schools and fifth overall nationally.

Westlake’s rowing coach, Jo Shotter, told the Observer rowers showed grit across all age groups. “We definitely have strength in our junior programme, for sure.”

Shotter said how the annual event would pan out always had an air of mystery.

“We knew we were doing well [during the season against North Island competition], but you never know until Maadi because that’s when you meet the South Island [teams].”

Shotter isn’t planning to push the U15 winners too hard, saying rowing “is not a one-year game but a four-year journey”. Until spring, she plans to “take a back seat”, encouraging the squad to take up winter sports and enjoy themselves.

Her highlight of the regatta was seeing so many crews in A finals, and the boys learning that “you can have fun and be rewarded for it”. The main goal of the Westlake programme, says Shotter, nodding to a philosophy of the All Blacks, is to “build champions and champion young men”, meaning the school want its rowers to become better people as well as rowers.

Westlake had a total of 23 crews at the regatta which was held last month, the week before the end of Term 1. It recorded its best results in 10 years.