Busy week for Stratford Boat Club juniors at Dorney and Kingston
STRATFORD Boat Club’s J14 and J15 squads were put through their paces last Thursday when they travelled to a windy and choppy Dorney Lake for the Oarsport Junior Sculling Head – but they came away with some fantastic results.
First to race was the WJ15 squad of Abbey Meggeson, Amelie Sartain, Harriet Hodgson and Sophie Elstone, coxed by Sienna Rawlingsi n the first leg they settled into a nice rhythm, clocking eight minutes and 27 seconds.
With the wind behind them for the second leg, the team rowed much faster in a time of 16:01 to come 22nd out of 66-strong field.
Following closely was the quad team of Elisabeth Edwards, Emma Harrison, Julia Zampronio Gurden and Martha Usselmann, coxed by Toby Sartain, who clocked a time of 17:55 in the second leg.
The nominally classed ‘15' boys quad consisted of J14s Tomi Wilcock and Will Beattie and J15s Conar Aitchison and Will Clarke, coxed by Mary Walton.
The group finished their first run in exactly eight minutes and crossing the line 46th overall out of 70 teams following the conclusion of the second leg.
The J14 girls were up next with two Stratford crews in action. First up were Freya Watts, Lucy Browne, Honour Keil, Fleur Griffiths and cox Toby Sartai.
In the first 1,800m leg up the lake, they finished in a time of 8:17. They then clocked 16:03 in the second leg, putting them joint-11th out of 47 crews.
The final crew to race was the second J14 girls’ crew of Harriet Holmes, Bella Chappelhow, Ruby Howells, Anne Mynors and cox Owen Perkins.
They finished the first leg in 9:05 and the second in 17:32 to claim 30th overall and fourth out of the Division B crews.
U14 coach Abi Terry said: “For the J14's first national event these were great results and the squad will look to build on these now before the Junior Inter-Regionals in April where they have been selected to represent the West Midlands.
“We also look forward to the National Schools Regatta in May.”
Then on Saturday, Stratford BC’s junior squad went to the Kingston upon Thames Head with their WJ17/18 coxed four of Katie Wellstead, Emily Browne, Khloe Curnock and Molly Gill-Swift expertly coxed by Mimi Hill taking on the year group above in a race over 5,200 metres.
Despite being excluded from the fleet of their competition through no fault of their own, they raced magnificently over the first half of the course, gaining on the nearest crew every stroke.
As they hit the head wind over the second half of the race, they maintained a great pace to finish in fourth place and 34 seconds behind the winner.
The WJ16 quadruple scull of Jasmine Mountney, Maiya James, Mili Wilcock and Alice Baines finished third, just 34 seconds off the leaders in the 20-minute race.
Meanwhile, King Edward VI School’s boys’ coxed four team stayed strong to finish in second place.
