Louise Entwistle competed at Munich International Junior Regatta over the weekend of 7th and 8th May 2005 where she wore her first GB vest colours in competition.

By all accounts it was freezing in Munich with lots of wind & rain. On Saturday Louise sculled with Fern Cotterill from Wycliffe in the 2nd heat of the WF double sculls A event. They started off well and in 2nd place to the Rumanians, but at 1500m they dropped to 3rd place behind a German composite. Final finish positions were:

Romania         7:24:67
Germany        7:30:90
Great Britain  7:31:71

The first 2 boats in each of the 3 heats went through to the A Final.
On time Louise & Fern were 7th and went through to the B Final.

In that event a German team led all the way and there was a battle for 2nd and 3rd place between GB, France and Poland with Spain only 3 seconds behind at the 1500 mark. GB came through and finished in 2nd place.

Germany       7:29:89
Great Britain 7:34:82
France           7:36:86
Poland           7:38:20

Great Britain (far side) battle with France and Poland in the B Final

The top GB double of Tina Stiller and Franki Jus-Burke won their heat and were 4th in the A Final in a time of 7:25:67.  Although Louise and Fern were disappointed at not getting though to the A Final, they were very pleased with their final time.

On the Sunday there were 2 time trials for WF 2x A,  Fern & Louise (pictured below) were in the faster of the 2 events and they came in 9 seconds behind in 2nd place behind Ukraine. The time was slower due to a cross wind.  It was very cold.

Louise got quite a lot out of the whole experience & will feel more confident if she goes next year. Last year Fern her partner competed in the same event on the Saturday and were finished by 8.30 having not even got through to the B Final - so really Louise & Fern did very well especially as they have had limited time training together.

The Germans appear to do their trialling by putting composites into Munich and other junior regattas, none competing as Germany, but with German blades! There were national teams from France, Spain, Poland, Croatia, Ukraine, etc…..

This is an excellent result for Maidenhead Rowing Club, as Louise has come through the Project Oarsome scheme and this demonstrates the standard we have of juniors at Maidenhead. I do expect at least 2 juniors each year to be achieving this level of competition and several junior athletes to follow in Louise's footsteps. This is the first time in 15 years that the club has had a female compete at such a high standard event.

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors