Two Macleans College students have won gold at the largest schools event in the southern hemisphere.
Logan Turrall and James Dimock, both 15, won gold in the Under 16 Boys double sculls in the Maadi Cup Regatta last week in Twizel. Logan also claimed another first place win in the Under 16 Boys single sculls.
The event was held between March 28 and April 2.
“They (Logan and James) have trained really hard,” Allan Vester, one of Macleans College rowing coaches, says.
“They haven’t lost a race all season. We were reasonably confident going into the cup.”
Logan told the Times that they’d been training for approximately eight months prior to the event, and that the wins felt “great”.
“It was really good to be able to win both of those events.”
James says the gold came with “quite a strong feeling of accomplishment and pride”.
“But as soon as we got off the water I was already thinking of how we can go faster and wanting to get back to training.”
A number of other crews in the Macleans College Rowing Team rowed their way into the A finals (top eight crews in New Zealand):
Girls U18 coxed quad sculls
Girls U18 single sculls
Boys U17 coxed quad sculls
Boys U16 single sculls
Boys U16 double sculls.
All in all, the school’s team finished third overall in NZ for sculling and 11th overall out of 95 schools.
Vester told the Times that he’s “very pleased” with the results of the regatta.
The rowing team trains five days a week on water, and two days at the gym.
“They love the water,” he says.
James echoes these sentiments.
“I really like being out on the water and seeing how fast I can go, as well as the social aspect.”
In the future, Logan and James would like to trial for the U19 New Zealand team.
