First rowing gold in 60 years at Maadi Cup
Maadi Cup Gold medallists Cam MacGillivray (left) and Nick Bryan with MAGS Director of Rowing Alice Denyer.
MAGSROW has secured its first gold medal at the Maadi Cup since 1961, with Nick Bryan and Cam MacGillivray winning the A Final boys U17 Coxless Pair Oars at the weekend with a flawless row at Lake Karapiro against tough competition from around the country.
Maadi Cup Gold medallists Nick Bryan (left) and Cam MacGillivray won the A Final boys U17 Coxless Pair Oars.
The MAGSROW squad also secured two Bronze medals with Ava Paynter and Kate Grubi coming third in the A Final Girls U17 Coxless Pair Oars, and the novice boys crew – Max Jarvie, Luke Sanders, Fraser MacGillivray, Charlie Heath and cox Max Murphy – placing third in the A Final of the Boys U15 Coxed Four.
Overall, the crews successfully qualified for eight A Finals and nine B Finals – breaking the previous MAGSROW record. Securing a place in these finals shows these crews are among the top secondary school rowers in the country.
The 2021 Aon Maadi Cup attracted more than 2000 competitors from 120 New Zealand schools.
Director of Rowing and Head Coach Alice Denyer says the Maadi Cup squad of 51 rowers (Year 10 – Year 13) worked incredibly hard over the season and were well-prepared going into this national event.
“Our coaches are so proud of what the squad achieved. Over the past few seasons we’ve seen our MAGSROW crews getting stronger each year and this year saw another big step up in our performance.”
“It was great to see some of our senior crews winning medals and making it into finals, and it’s also very exciting to have strong novice rowers in the squad.”
The novice boys crew of Max Jarvie, Luke Sanders, Fraser MacGillivray, Charlie Heath and cox Max Murphy, Bronze medallists in the A Final of the Boys U15 Coxed Four.
Alice Denyer took on the Director of Rowing role in 2020 and has previously won national British titles and European Rowing Championships, and has coached crews to national and international titles.
Her goal now is to build on this season’s successes and strengthen the MAGSROW squad through the Rowing Academy and year-round land-based training programme, before on-water training resumes later in the year.
MAGS has a strong history of rowing, and was instrumental in introducing rowing as a secondary school sport in New Zealand in the 1930s. MAGS had significant success at Maadi Cup in the early days of the competition, winning the inaugural cup in 1947 and going on to win the top national rowing award seven more times between 1951 and 1961.
“We’ve got a great squad and we want to introduce more MAGS students to this incredible sport. Rowing is hard work but the pay-off for that hard work is finding out what you are capable of achieving. Our squad develops a really strong work ethic, and you see them taking that into other areas of their life.”
Bronze medallists Kate Grubi (left) and Ava Paynter rowing back to the boat park at Lake Karapiro after receiving their medals for their fast finish in the A Final Girls U17 Coxless Pair Oars.