Maadi Cup 2015 is the biggest year yet

This year the Maadi Cup at Lake Karapiro will be biggest yet .

A total of 2359 athletes from 122 secondary schools from all over New Zealand have registered for the week.

The Aon Maadi Cup event is set to kick off this Sunday March 22 with a parade in Cambridge before the first event, the boys U17 Single Scull,  gets under starter’s orders at 8.30 Monday. 

This year’s 52 events (with multitple races in each starting at four-minute intervals on some days) have 1468 crews, with the biggest category being the Girls U17 single with 64 entries.

The highlight of this year’s event is the return to Maadi of the crew who won the  Springbok Shield (Hamilton Boys) in 1965. The men will present medals and trophies to the winners of the Shield they won 50 years ago.

Marketing and communications manager for Rowing NZ Margaret Timms said the crowds are expected to start at 5000 supporters and reach up to 10,000 for the finals on the weekend.

“The atmosphere is pretty special – on finals days the crowd is loud and supportive, it can be quite an emotionally stirring experience for both spectators and rowers. The crowd noise and cheering is similar to a major sporting event where top international competitors are racing, it’s pretty phenomenal.”

Maadi is run predominantly by a fleet of volunteers.  “There are many pieces to the puzzle [which include] ensuring there is a volunteer base to run the regatta, having the course set up correctly with lane buoys, ordering and designing medals, winners T-shirts, and producing an event programme.”

As well, Timms said organisers had to ensure  there were enough boat racks in the park for the millions of dollars worth of equipment (a single eights-scull can cost more than $80,000), traffic management, health and safety plans, and event and sponsor signage.

“There are hundreds of people who beaver away to ensure the event is a huge success.”