There is a sense of relief for many that this week's Maadi Cup rowing regatta was able to take place.
The 2020 regatta in Twizel was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019 Maadi Cup winners Christchurch Boys High School Photo: © Steve McArthur / @RowingCelebration
This year's national secondary school's competition is being held at Lake Karapiro in Waikato where a record 2,458 athletes from 120 schools take to the water over the week.
Hamilton Boys' High School don't have far to travel for this year's competition and they've gone to Karapiro with a squad of 70 athletes.
The latest COVID-19 outbreak in Auckland put this year's event in doubt and Hamilton Boys' Director of rowing Glen Ross says it's a weight off the shoulders of everyone involved to get the event up and running.
"It's fantastic that we're back on track now and are able to do what we're doing. It was touch and go for awhile there not so long ago but we're here now and I think it's a massive relief for everybody that's involved that they're able to see out their season and put their marker in the ground," Ross said.
He admits that last year's cancellation was hard to stomach for many athletes.
"It was an absolute travesty for the kids last year many of whom were at the peak of their three or four year tenure in their schools. For them to have the rug pulled from under them at the end of that when many of them had proved they were about to conquer their Everest, it was tough," he said.
Secondary school rowing memberships have rebounded in spite of the ongoing effects of COVID-19 but Ross admits it's more difficult to keep athletes in the sport nowadays.
"These days it's a little bit harder to sustain large numbers with the amount of alternative options available to kids, keeping the kids involved in a sport that's a bit of a grind it's hard work, those who survive it benefit from it but it's a tough gig for young people to apply themselves and commit themselves to the ins and outs of what the sport demands"
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Unlike Hamilton Boy's High School, Christchurch's Rangi Ruru Girls' School is one of the many teams who've had to make the long road-trip up to Waikato.
Rangi Ruru rowing manager Olivia Ling says the team's preparations for the event have gone well despite some disruptions caused by the latest COVID-19 outbreaks.
All but one of the team's planned training trips to Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel went ahead, aside from the South Island Secondary School's competition which was called off due to a rise in the COVID-19 alert levels.
Rangi Ruru have a team of 39 athletes at the Maadi Cup this year, including a number of second-year rowers who missed out on their first regatta last year.
Ling says it's great to see those who missed out last year are finally getting their chance at the pinnacle event.
"Everyone's excited especially those girls that were new to rowing last year, this is all new for them so everyone's excited and they're just ready to show the work they've put in over the season."
Rangi Ruru Girls' School will look to continue their rivalry with St. Margaret's College with both sides historically dominating competition for the Levin 75th Jubilee Cup, which is awarded to the fastest under 18's girls eight's team.
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St. Margaret's College have won the cup four times in the last 10 years while Rangi Ruru hold the record of 11 wins over the competition's history.
Wanganui Collegiate are the most successful school in Maadi Cup history with 17 wins in the boys under 18s eight's while Christ's College follow in second with 12 wins.
A number of New Zealand's top rowers competed at the Maadi Cup while at school, including Caroline Evers-Swindell, who along with her sister, Georgina, went on to become two-time Olympic double sculls champions.
Caroline was part of a two-person Hastings Rudolf Steiner School that went to and won titles at the Maadi Cup.
"For me the Maadi Cup was incredible... all the school tents, all the uniforms, the flags, the school songs and hakas and all the supporters, it's a very cool week."
"I'd been to regattas before and I'd been luck to win before, but to come from a school with just two of us and to see the big school and the history (of the Maadi Cup), it was cool to be a tiny part of it."
The origins of the Maadi Cup stem from the time the New Zealand Expeditionary Force spent in Egypt during the World War II with the cup named after the militiary base that hosted the Kiwi oarsmen of the Second N.Z.E.F.
The Maadi Cup was donated as a symbol of friendship by Dr Youssef Bahgat to the winners of a points competition between the Maadi Camp Rowing Club and the Cairo Rowing Club, .
The Kiwis won this competition and at the end of World War II the cup was gifted to the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association to be used to foster inter-schoolboy eight-oared rowing for annual competition as a challenge cup, the cup was later renamed the Maadi Cup and the illustrious competition was born.
The Maadi Cup final's will run from Friday 26th- Saturday 27th March.
