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Maidenhead Rowing Club
juniors were very busy impressing selectors at the Final JUNIOR GB TRIALS held
at Dorney Lake for the girls and Nottingham for the boys. Conditions were very
good for most of the junior trials that took place at Dorney lake and Nottingham
over the past few weeks.
Final trials Dorney lake - Girls.
Maidenhead’s leading female junior, Louise Entwistle competed in final trials at Dorney Lake for a seat in the GB junior squad, trialing for the World junior championship quad or a sculling position in the Coupe de la Jeunesse team. After 3 days of intensive trials Louise was ranked just outside the Worlds squad but won a seat in the Coupe team being selected for the double with Mallissa Petronikolos from Molesey RC.
GB France trials.
At the same time as final trials the GB France trails were held. Louise teamed up with Ally Brooks to compete for selection in the WJ16 double. On this occasion they just lost out to Hollingworth Lake RC who went on to win the GB France race convincingly. Both Hollingworth lake girls have also been selected for the Coupe team.
GB France trials in Nottingham for the boys were carried out in rough conditions. Max Gerrard and Phil Clapp found it difficult to perform in such conditions and could only manage to finish in fourth position on this occasion.
GB France match.
Louise was selected to represent GB in the GB/France match in a single as a result of being the fastest single sculler in the GB squad at WJ16 level. This match against France took place on Monday 11th July in Nottingham and Louise did well to beat the French National sculling champion by 2 lengths. The overall GB team ended up losing 7 – 5 to the French team who were mainly made up of National Champions who competed at the French Nationals earlier in the month.
Final trials Nottingham boys.
The final trials for boys was held in Nottingham a week later for the top junior boys in the country. Sam Ashburner was pre-selected for GB seat trials and Dave Jones was asked to compete in the race-offs for a place in the final team. Dave had to race off against 8 scullers and had to finish in the top 2 places. Dave won the race offs and went through to the final seat trials for a place in the GB team. On day 2 Dave came down with an illness and was instructed by the GB doctor that he could note compete anymore at final trials. He had to wait until the end of the week to find out his fate by the Chief GB selector. Meanwhile Sam Ashburner continued to successfully carry out seat trials and had his goal set on reaching a place in the World junior rowing team. As events worked out he just missed out on a place in this squad but Sam was pleased when it was announced that he was selected to represent GB in a double scull with Carl Delanney at the Coupe de la Jeunessee to be held at Dorney Lake on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st July. Dave Jones was relieved to be given a place in the same team as the spare man sculler.
Several coaches have assisted these athletes over the years and it is pleasing to hear that two coaches from Maidenhead - Tom Jost and Billy Brooks have been selected to coach GB crews for the Coupe and GB France match. Jost was selected to coach the GB boys Coupe quad and Brooks was selected to coach the GB girls Coupe double scull. |
