rowIT.nz

Congratulations Rangi Ruru Girls School, champion school of 2021!

Congratulations Rangi Ruru Girls School, champion sweep oar school

Congratulation Dunstan High School, champion sculling school

Congratulation Charlotte Muir, coxswain of the regatta

After consulting member schools at the NZSSRA AGM and ensuring that we could logistically make this happen we are delighted to inform schools that the Aon North Island Secondary Schools and Meridian South Island Secondary Schools Rowing Championship medals will be awarded to those crews who place in the top three crews for their respective islands at the Aon Maadi Cup finals days.

Medals be given out at the finish tower office from 10am onwards (post the day sheet rush), there will also be a panel posted outside the office for photos with the respective regatta logos. Trophies will not be awarded for either event.

While we appreciate the events have not been specifically raced, we hope that facilitating this decision of member schools and awarding these medals recognises the achievement of reaching the islands’ top crews.

1st: St Pauls. 2nd: Wgtn Col. 3rd: Wgtn East Girls

The day sheets for finals days are now available online

No C Finals have been cancelled. They appear as cancelled from to-to-time due to the computer draw process at the lake. They will be raced.

Regatta Control has ruled NK EmPower Oarlocks are not permitted to be used at this Championships regatta. Any crews making use of this innovative technology must remove them from their boats before competing at this regatta; otherwise they will be found to be in breach of Rule 4.2. If you have any questions about this ruling please contact Regatta Control.

NZSSRA, Rowing NZ and Karapiro Rowing welcome all schools arriving for the 2021 Aon Maadi Cup at Lake Karapiro.

Boat trailers are beginning to arrive at Lake Karapiro - please make contact with Karapiro Rowing to be shown to your parking positions. Schools unwrapping boats must place plastic in the bin provided at the back of the Boat Park.

If you are training on the water today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday) be aware that training is unsupervised and safety remains school’s responsibility - please ensure you comply with our sport’s Water Safety Code (including floatation belts) and follow the training flow pattern. Supervised training commences on Saturday 20 March.

The event is the biggest in history, with 2458 students from 122 schools expected to compete.

Whilst these numbers are very positive for secondary school rowing, they do place pressure upon progression of the programme across six days of racing. The large number of entries received means that there is not enough on-water time available throughout the week to undertake the regatta under the usual Aon Maadi Cup progression system (Option 7). The usual progression system would require 596 races to be held between Monday and Saturday, which is not possible. Using the usual progression system would also not allow for scheduling adjustments; often required for weather delays and mitigating competitor conflicts.

To alleviate these issues and to ensure we are providing a fair opportunity for all competitors, the 2021 Aon Maadi Cup progression system will return to that which was used 2006-2012 (Option 1). Details of this progression system can be found in the table below.

One key difference to this alternative progression system is rather than holding Quarter-Finals, there will instead be four Semi-Finals. This difference will affect 15 events. Also, in many events, a higher number of crews will be eliminated during Heats. Heats and Repechages will also have a bigger impact upon positioning in Semi-Finals. Therefore the importance of competitors to race to the best of their abilities in Heats increases.

Minor Finals are also affected for these 15 events, which will not have C and D Finals as usual. After much work, Karapiro Rowing have provided a solution to enable the progression system used to allow C Finals to proceed. C Finals for these events will take place on Friday and Saturday.

Karapiro Rowing will also waive Non-Progression fees for any schools that remove themselves from C and B Finals 24 hours ahead of their Final race; provided a replacement crew can participate in that Final. The 24-hour notice period provides the opportunity for a replacement crews to progress in their place. In the event a replacement crew cannot be found the usual non-progression fee will apply. Early notification of these decisions to Karapiro Rowing will ensure that the maximum number of competitors are able to experience Finals racing.

This alternative progression system will allow for more supplementary entries into U18 single and double events (effective Monday). We hope this is well received as in previous years there have been requests for the limits to lift on U18 small boats.

The draft race schedule is available at rowit.nz/mads2021/schedule. Please note that the Repechage and Semi-Final days (Wednesday and Thursday) timing will likely change beyond the end of day published after we have built in the necessary space to avoid conflicts. This can only be done once we know who is progressing to which race.

While this change will require further planning for schools affected, after much evaluation NZSSRA, Rowing NZ and Karapiro Rowing have determined it is the best progression system to use to provide fair racing for all competitors.


2021 Aon Maadi Cup Progression Table

Entries Heats Progression Not progressing Reps Progression Semis Progression
9-10 2 1>F; rest>R 0 1 1-6>AF
11-12 2 1-2>F; rest>R 0 1 1-4>AF
13-16 2 1>F; rest>R 0 2 1-3>AF
17-24 3 1-2>AF; 3-7>R 8th 2 1>AF; 2-5>BF
25-32 4 1>AF; 2-5>R 6th, 7th & 8th 2 1-2>AF; 3-6>BF
33-40 5 1-2>S; 3-5>R 6th, 7th & 8th 2 1-3>S 2 1-4>AF; 5-8>BF
41-48 6 1-4>S; 5-6>R 7th & 8th 2 1-4>S 4 1-2>AF; 3-4>BF; 5-6>CF
49-56 7 1-4>S; 5-6>R 7th & 8th 2 1-2>S 4 1-2>AF; 3-4>BF; 5-6>CF
57-64 8 1-3>S; 4-5>R 6th, 7th & 8th 2 1-4>S 4 1-2>AF; 3-4>BF; 5-6>CF
CF added

With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic situation and the possibility of changing government regulations in NZ we would also like to recommend that schools and supporters consider their bookings and the subsequent cancellation policies or insurance of those bookings carefully. Disruption to or cancellation of these regattas could occur at any time. Also please ensure you stay at home and do not attend the event if you are sick or feeling unwell, and please ensure attention to personal hygiene remains paramount (wash your hands, cough or sneeze into elbow).

The Schools Committee has approved the inclusion of U17 Pair exhibition events at Maadi. Like last year's events at NISSC and SISSC,they are subject to a condition that entrants in these events can't exceed the NZSSRA recommended maximum workload of 3 events. So they are only open to students who are entered in no more than 2 other events.