St Benedict’s College maintained their stranglehold on the Standard Bank SA Schools Boat Race after claiming their seventh consecutive victory on the Kowie River in a pulsating and drama-filled finals day on Saturday.
In the junior women’s section, St Andrew’s School for Girls, (12:45.63) defended their 2024 title with distinction leaving St Stithian’s (13:00.65) trailing in their wake after setting off at a rapid pace at the Centenary Park start.
A suspected drowning incident at upper Wharf Street not connected to the boat race, cast a dark pall over the finals, which was suspended for at least two hours while the NSRI and river police patrol boat searched the Kowie.
SuperSport who live streamed the boat races made a decision to suspend coverage at that point for the entire day. Organisers also cancelled the official prize-giving ceremony scheduled for the Halyards Hotel verandah.
With the decision made to continue the junior men’s A, B, and C finals and the junior women’s C final however, it meant a two-hour delay when the races finally got going at about 5.15pm. The girls’ B final for third and fourth place between Holy Rosary and St Mary’s School did not proceed as apparently the two teams declined to go back on the water after the incident.
In the men’s final that set off at about 6.10pm, St Benedict’s (16:34.72) turned up the heat at the start before St John’s College (16:42.02) reeled them in at the second corner to retain the lead. The champions fought back to up the tempo and surged ahead in to the Bay to the finish line at Chef’s Pantry.
Despite conceding five seconds to St John’s in Friday’s heads races, the decision to start faster paid off for St Benedict’s on finals day.
Their captain Michael Texeira said after the race, he and his crew were ecstatic that they could maintain their winning legacy.
“Obviously we had quite a big legacy coming in to this race and we wanted to uphold that … and this was our motivation. We worked really hard; especially being five seconds off our opponents after Friday’s heads races … we’re so proud to have pulled it off.”
“We had a few technical things to fix after the heads races … we had to really support and fight for each other and be a tight unit.
Texeira said conditions were ideal though the tide seemed to have changed once they had got out on to the river.
“The tide changed to going in and then started going out with the delay … it changed a little in terms of what we planned to do but our cox was brilliant … he told us what to do, to stay calm and he did very well indeed.
“It is really tough on the Kowie … it’s a 5.5km race … not the usual 2.5kms; you have to dig deep and work together,” added Texeira.
Jade Brunand St Andrew’s School for Girls captain, said the team had stood up to the plate after conceding five seconds to St Stithian’s in the previous day’s heads races.
“So we knew we had to come out strong very early in the final … we stuck to our race plan and I think we did very well in executing our strategy.
“We had a lot of endurance training in the build-up; we did a lot of training on the rowing machine … lots of hard work on the water. So by the time we got to the 3km mark in the race, out of the 3.6km, we had that endurance built in us, to take us to the end,” said Brunand.
She said conditions could not have been more perfect for the final.
“Conditions were actually so so beautiful … it was high tide just before the race and it was going out by the time we were in the water; the tide was perfect.
“Our plan was to go out as hard as we could … because unfortunately we did get West Bank, so that means we had a disadvantage at the first corner; so our goal was to get ahead. As we entered the “killing fields” we just knew we had to buckle up and get our legs down as hard as we could to get through the Bay and take it home from there.”
James Redshaw of A final runners-up, St John’s College, said competition was of a high standard.
“We fought really hard and we were down on the start … they (St Benedict’s) really put a lot of distance on us at the start.
“The first corner of the race St Benedict’s had the advantage, hugging the back around the corner… and we had to fight hard to catch up . The next corner was ours and we cut down and gained quite a bit of distance on them. Through the “killing fields” we fought hard and got distance on them … and then it was some tight racing. Until the last corner we were next to each other … and that’s where they got the better of us .. but we did not stop fighting,” added Redshaw.
South African College High School (SACS) (17:37.55) showed that they are a rowing team on the up when they pulled off an upset in the boys B final, to beat St Stithian’s (18:00.52) in to third place.
KES(21:49.68) were too strong to the finish line in the junior men’s C final against St Andrew’s College (21:53.02) to finish in fifth spot.
Diocesan School for Girls (16:09.97) flew the flag high for the region when they powered home a minute quicker than Clarendon High (17:09.01) in the C final to take fifth place.
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All finals results available on the South African Schools Boat Race Facebook page
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This article was first published in Talk of the Town, December 11, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays
