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It was a come from behind win, but Kerikeri High School again showed that they have what it takes to win the Secondary School Teams Racing Nationals, sailed last week on Lake Taupo.
After what had been a slow start in Round Robin one, Kerikeri came home with a perfect winning record in the 3rd and final round robin to clinch the series lead by one point from Tauranga Boys who had lead for most of the regatta. The light winds of the final round robin really proved the undoing for Tauranga, scoring just 5 wins.
Mahurangi showed good boat speed in the light winds and race tactics on the final day, despite the make of the team including two very large crew combinations, to suffer just the one defeat in the final round and clinch 3rd place overall. The big movers in round robin two, Lindisfarne College from the Hawkes Bay had a disastrous final round by their high standards with just three wins and slipped to 6th place overall, behind Westlake Boys (4th) and Marlborough Boys (5th).
The top placed girls team went to Auckland Diocesan in 7th place overall. The girls performing consistently in the middle of the gold fleet table and frequently pushing the top teams right to the wire. Marlborough Girls came home 10th overall and were 2nd placed girls and winners of Silver Fleet. However it was a bitter sweet result having lost the Gold/Silver repecharge at the end of round two to Silver Fleet and effectively not being able to push on for the Girls title in the final round robin. Napier Girls came home 11th overall and third girl’s team and will be well pleased with making it up to Gold Fleet for the final round robin and taking a win off Kings College.
The final round robin produced some interesting results in the other fleets. Smarting after a round in Bronze Macleans College bounced back with 4 wins in the Silver Fleet. Glendowie (13th overall, 3rd in Silver) pushed Christchurch Boys (12th overall and 2nd Silver) hard for overall points with a good run of five wins in some very tightly fought races. In Bronze, New Plymouth Girls, who were repo charged down after round two, completed a clean sweep, but it was the KeriKeri girls whoi proved the giant killers taking their first two ever race wins off St Cuthberts and Tauhara College, who were the perennial 2nd place getters in every round robin of Bronze and frustrated not to make it up to Silver.
Due to the light conditions on the final two days, no final series were able to be completed so all results were determined on the round robin scores. That said the host venue really did turn it on with a full range of conditions permitting 394 races to be run over the week, the most races on record for the event. A massive team effort by all the volunteers contributed to a great fun week for all involved, spear headed by the NZTSA’s Ross Sutherland and the team at the Lake Taupo Yacht Club.
The Nationals also selected the New Zealand teams to face Australia in the Inter-Dominions to be run in Brisbane in October. The Kiwi team will be Kerikeri, Tauranga Boys and Mahurangi for the Open with Auckland Diocesan, Marlborough Girls and Napier Girls as representatives for the girls trophy.
For a full revue of the results visit the NZTSA website: http://teamnz.myblog.net.nz/page203.aspx
Photos by event image capture www.eventimagecapture.co.nz
