{"id":31076,"date":"2023-12-10T20:57:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T18:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31076"},"modified":"2023-12-10T20:57:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-10T18:57:19","slug":"st-benedicts-and-st-marys-extend-their-boat-race-win-streaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=31076","title":{"rendered":"St Benedict’s and St Mary’s extend their Boat Race win streaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The\u00a0Standard Bank South African Schools Boat Race<\/strong>\u00a0trophies are returning to familiar homes in Gauteng again this year, with\u00a0St Benedict\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0St Mary\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0both successfully defending their titles on the\u00a0Kowie River<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0Port Alfred<\/strong>\u00a0on Saturday.<\/p>\n

St Mary\u2019s beat their Gauteng rivals,\u00a0St Andrew\u2019s<\/strong>, in the\u00a0girls\u2019 1st<\/sup>\u00a0quad race<\/strong>\u00a0for their ninth consecutive win and their 16th<\/sup>\u00a0in the 22-year history of the Boat Race.<\/p>\n

The girls from Waverley tackled the start of the 5km race as if they were in a 1 000m sprint on Victoria Lake and by the time the crews hit the first bend in the river they had opened a lead that they never relinquished. St Andrew\u2019s came back bravely in the closing stages, but the superior fitness of the St Mary\u2019s girls saw them close out the race.<\/p>\n

St Benedict\u2019s College\u2019s win in the boys\u2019\u00a01st<\/sup>\u00a0Eight race<\/strong>\u00a0was their sixth in a row \u2013 with a break in 2021 due to Covid \u2013 and their ninth in total.<\/p>\n

Their race against\u00a0St Stithians<\/strong>\u00a0in the final was very different to that of St Mary\u2019s. It was St Stithians who got away the stronger, and when they had opened up a one boat-length lead a quarter of the way through it looked like an upset might be on the cards. The oars of the boats got into a tangle a little while later, however, and the race was stopped.<\/p>\n

When it restarted Bennies were away quicker and they claimed the better line through the next bend to move ahead \u2013 a lead they kept until the end.<\/p>\n

Two successive silver medals for St Stithians in a row at the Boat Race shows that rowing is on the up in that part of the world. In March, they beat St Benedict\u2019s in the 1st Eight race at the SA Schools Championships, and with a bit more luck they could well have won in Port Alfred on Saturday. Could it be that the power in boys rowing might be shifting away from Bennies after 25 years as the top boys\u2019 school in the country?<\/p>\n

St Mary\u2019s were also beaten at SA Champs \u2013 by\u00a0Holy Rosary<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 but they came back to beat them at the Gauteng Championships in November, and the ease with which they won their race on Saturday indicates that they are likely to rule the roost in girls\u2019 rowing for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

The hosts of the regatta,\u00a0St Andrew\u2019s College<\/strong>\u00a0of Makhanda, won the bronze medal in the boys\u2019 competition. They beat\u00a0Rondebosch Boys\u2019 High<\/strong>\u00a0in a race that was also stopped for a clash of boats. Their win in the B final marked a big turnaround in their fortunes this year \u2013 they were fifth in the 1st Eight at the SA Schools Champs back in March.<\/p>\n

St Stithians beat Holy Rosary in the girls\u2019 B final to finish third overall. So, there was, at least, the consolation of two medals on the day for the Randburg family of schools.<\/p>\n

For the schools\u2019 rowing community, there remains yet another year\u2019s wait ahead before they get to challenge the undisputed queens and kings of the Kowie River.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Standard Bank South African Schools Boat Race\u00a0trophies are returning to familiar homes in Gauteng again this year, with\u00a0St Benedict\u2019s\u00a0and\u00a0St Mary\u2019s\u00a0both successfully defending their titles on the\u00a0Kowie River\u00a0in\u00a0Port Alfred\u00a0on Saturday. St Mary\u2019s beat their Gauteng rivals,\u00a0St Andrew\u2019s, in the\u00a0girls\u2019 1st\u00a0quad race\u00a0for their ninth consecutive win and their 16th\u00a0in the 22-year history of the Boat Race. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":31081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}