St Mary's win the boat race for the tenth time

With five girls attending the World Rowing Junior Championships in August last year, the 2016 St Mary’s Boat Race crew set a high bar for the season and had pressure to succeed. The month or so leading up to the 2016 South African Schools’ Boat Race was a competitive and challenging time for us as our two strongest opponents, St Andrew’s and Holy Rosary, trained together and worked off each other. It was through this time that the five of us and our strong reserve, Paige, came together as a team and tried to raise the bar a few centimetres higher. Thanks to our dedicated and passionate coach and head coach, Dan and Caitlin respectively, it was one of the most enjoyable and successful rowing tours we have experienced.

After winning our heads race on the Friday, we raced St Andrew’s in the A Final, where we continued the St Mary’s legacy and claimed the tenth South African Schools’ Boat Race win for St Mary’s.

January Rowing Camp

The St Mary’s rowers began the second half of the 2016-2017 season with a bang. After setting the bar high at the end of last year, the girls approached the second half of the season ready to train hard.

When the girls arrived on the first day of January camp, they had the wonderful surprise of eight brand-new Swift racing boats. All the girls worked during a hot camp, and the junior and senior age groups bonded well. The girls showed off their hard work, and proved they are deserving of the new boats at the Holy Rosary regatta on 21 January.

VLC Sprints

This past weekend, the rowing club competed at the Victoria Lake Club National Sprint Regatta. The junior age group raced on Saturday, the U14 age group broke three course records and took the new Swift octuple out for the maiden voyage, resulting in a 45-second win. The U15s claimed gold again in the octuple. The U16 and Open groups competed on Sunday against the universities and older clubs. The girls held their own, gathering up some silverware in the form of gold, silver and bronze medals.

The club claimed the women’s eight for the second consecutive year, as well as winning the overall trophy for the third consecutive year.

Well done to the team. We had several parents racing for VLC Club. Congratulations to the parents for being prepared to take on the fun challenges of rowing!

Alexa Kneale and Caitlin Dace

Form IV Head of Rowing