A poll by The Courier of 2000 people asking if the St Patrick’s College crew should have been disqualified was split 50/50 down the middle.

The St Patrick’s College crew won the Head of the Lake on Sunday by six seconds but controversy erupted after their cox weighed in two kilograms short of the minimum 55 kilogram requirement.

Race referees recommended the crew be disqualified but the competing school principals unanimously instead decided to re-row the race on Wednesday at 9am due to anomalies in the cox weigh-in process, with the coxes weighed on different days, and for the students’ “best educational interests”.

However, comments on The Courier’s Facebook page and several letters to the editor have criticised the decision.

Paul Commons of Ballarat North said: “Clearly we don’t need to follow rules and, if we don’t get our way, we only need to find an anomaly to get another result. Rowing is a tough sport, it makes heavy demands of all participants, builds character and resilence; we value it because of those things.”

Ian Olver of Nerrina said, while St Patrick’s College were technically the best crew, they trangressed the “cut and dried enforceable rules”.

But, in support, Fab Taylor said: “If something like weight is so important, and they could be disqualified for a weight violation, then why isn't the testing of weight more uniform. All coxes of the top crews should be weighed on the day of the race and at the conclusion of the race so that there is no grey area. The organisers allowed this grey area to occur, not the crews.”

And Dale Boucher said: “As a past winning cox, the before and after weigh in's are quite stressful. You can easily lose weight over a day or two through nerves and not feeling hungry in the lead up. For a cox, it's your worst nightmare so hang in there young St Pats coxswain.”

All five crews involved in Sunday’s race - St Patrick’s College, Ballarat Grammar, Ballarat High, Ballarat Clarendon College and Damascus College - will take part.

*The Courier will conduct a live broadcast of the event on our Facebook page on Wednesday morning, for those who can’t make it to Lake Wendouree.