Two Year 11 Queen Margaret College students are national rowing champions following the Aon Maadi Cup at Lake Ruataniwha last month.  Mila Van der Wilt and Mollie Nicol won gold in the U15 Girls Double Sculls with a time of 7.58 minutes, beating their closest opponent by 8 seconds.  They are the first Queen Margaret College students to win gold at Maadi, the national championship event for high school rowers.

The pair had won in the Double Sculls at all events leading up to Maadi, including at the KR1 and KR2 regattas at Lake Karapiro and the North Island Secondary School Championships.

Mila says it was an “amazing experience” to win the gold at Maadi.  “QMC has never won a Maadi gold before so to be the first two people to do that and to make history was pretty cool. It was great that all our hard work paid off,” Mollie adds.

The pair credit their successful win to a lot of training and support from their teammates and coach, Roy Pickard.  “Before Maadi we practised 10 times a week, which included before and after school sessions,” Mila says.

As well as competing in the U15 Double Sculls both Mila and Mollie competed in other races at the national event.  Mollie competed in the U17 Girls 4 and came 8th in the B Final and came 5th in the U16 Girls Single B Final.  Mila competed in the U15 Girls 4 and the team came 5th in the A Finals.

Both agree that while they enjoyed all their races, the Double is always their favourite.  “We always have so much fun at training,” Mila says.

Article courtesy of Queen Margaret College

Photo Credit: Thanks to Steve McArthur at Rowing Celebration for the photos: Copyright photo © Rowing Celebration