The Champions
St Andrews College narrowly won the Points Bell, for Champion South Island School, with 69 points. Christchurch Boys High School came second with 68 points. Rangi Ruru Girls School took third place on 62 points. The lead changed place regularly throughout the regatta and the trophy was only decided on the final race of the day!
St Andrews College also had the largest medal haul at the regatta (6 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze) but 28 other schools also collected medals.
The standard of competition was very high and the 12 pennant events (those with unrestricted entry i.e. U18 non-novice, non-lightweight) were shared between 7 different schools. CBHS won all three boys sculling pennant events and the sweep oar ones were split between MLBB (2) and CHCO (1). Nobody dominated the girls sweep oar pennant events, which were shared between CRAI, NCOG, and STMG; ASHB (2) and NCOG (1) took the sculling ones.
Christs College won the Boys Under-18 Eights and St Margarets College won the Girls Under-18 Eights.
We can anticipate seeing a lot of the crews again at the 2016 Aon Maadi regatta. And we can also expect to seeing many of them appear on the Maadi medal dais!
Special mention goes to Veronica Wall of ASHB who managed a clean sweep of the girls single sculls (U16, U17, and U18). This is first time that has been achieved at any NZSSRA Championships since the U16 singles were introduced in 2011. It should make the girls singles events at Maadi very interesting.
Results by rowIT
Live results were available during the regatta. They can be found on the rowIT website: rowit.nz/siss16
News 2016-01-15
2016 Stats
1104 pupils from 48 schools were entered in 3120 seats in 874 crews. 203 races were required to complete the regatta and find the winners of all 52 events.
NISSC
While South Island schools are competing on Lake Ruataniwha for recognition as the best the South Island has to offer their North Island counter-parts will do the same thing up at the 2016 Aon North Island Champs on Lake Karapiro. Keep a watch on both regattas for indicators of who may claim the top spot at Maadi!
2015 Stats
1038 pupils from 47 schools in 2878 seats in 820 crews. 191 races would have been required to complete the regatta and find the winners of all 52 events. Unfortunately the regatta was abandonned before completion and there was no racing on Sunday at all.
Warm clothing
Although rowing is a summer sport the weather does not always co-operate. It is essential everybody has warm clothing available and uses it. Officials do not want to see crews arriving at the start shivering when they should be dressed warmly and removing the extra layers pre-race.
Entry limits2 crews per school per event (excl 8(X)+s)
This Season the usual limit of 2 crews-per-school-per-event will apply for events other than eights and octuples. There is no limit for all eights and octuples events.
Schools must also be aware the compressed nature of this regatta means there should be no expectation any pupil who is entered in more than one event will have sufficient time available to compete in all of those events.
Note: entry limits get raised slowly during supplementary entries
Number of events per pupil
After a review of the per pupil entries for the last few Seasons' school regattas and much discussion about the health and safety of each rower, the Schools Committee continues to make the following recommendation:
School age rowers should only be racing 2 events at a Championships regatta. A few rowers could be considered for 3 events; none should be doing more.
In reaching the recommendation advice was sought from physiologists, leading elite coaches and the NZ Secondary School Sports Council. The Schools Committee will continue to monitor the entry per pupil this season.
NZSSSC School Team Eligibility criteria pupils "new" to a school
The NZSSSC School Team Eligibility criteria were revised with effect from 2012 and then tweaked for rowing at NZSSRA's 2013 AGM. An updated article about the NZSSSC School Team Eligibility criteria is available to help members assess whether or not each of their pupils is considered new to their school. Schools are limited to 3 "new" pupils in an eight and 1 "new" pupil in other boats ("new" pupils are those who've swapped schools or come from overseas and looks back over the past 2 years).
Lightweight reminder for pupils in multiple lightweight events
We take this opportunity to remind Members who have entered lightweight rowers in both lightweight events that NZSSRA Rules require crews to weigh in before EACH event (Rule 12). Pupils cannot weigh-in once for both events. This is different from coxswains but coxswains can be check-weighed at any time whereas lightweights cannot.
As we have been repeatedly assured all lightweights at our regattas are genuine lightweights and naturally below the weight limits the Rule requirements should present no challenges with respect to making weight. An athlete who has to avoid re-hydrating and eating between events in order to make weight for both events should not be racing lightweight.
Lake Ruataniwha, 19 & 20 March 2016
