Maidenhead Rowing Club sent along a group of 21 Junior Athletes (5 boys and 16 girls) to compete at the 2005 National Rowing Championships held over 3 days Friday 15th through to Sunday 17th July 2005.

In summary this was Maidenhead Rowing Club's best ever team performance at the National Championships, where medals are very much sought after. Maidenhead junior athletes won a total of six Gold medals/National titles, one Silver and one Bronze medal.

In addition to this fantastic scoop of National medals we had three junior athletes selected for the Home Countries match to take place next weekend in Cardiff. Natalie Trinder was selected with Caris Marsh from Upper Thames to represent England in the Womens 2x with Laurian Pepper and Jo Wright selected to represent Scotland in the same event. Simon Ramskill has been appointed coach to the Maidenhead/Scottish double for the Home Countries match.

Summary of medal winning Maidenhead crews are as follows:

GOLD MEDALISTS
WJ14 2x   Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora
WJ14 4x+ Emily Webster (cox), Maddie Reynolds, Emma Kerns, Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns
WJ15 2x   Aimee Campbell, Ally Brooks
WJ15 4x+ Rebecca Reeve (cox), Sophie Delannie, Alice Ancora, Aimee Campbell, Ally Brooks
WJ18 2x   Caris Marsh (Upper Thames), Natalie Trinder (Crew selected for England)
W 2x         Louise Entwistle, Melissa Petronikolos (Molesey BC) (Crew selected for GB)

SILVER MEDALISTS
WJ18 2x   Laurian Pepper, Jo Wright (Crew selected for Scotland)

BRONZE MEDALISTS
J18 2x      Max Gerrard, Phil Clapp

Coaches
I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the junior coaches that help out at Maidenhead as we have many parents and coaches involved. In particular, I would like to make special mention to the coaches who have played a key part in helping the individuals mentioned above record such great achievements.

Laura Lion who looks after the Beginner girls and has done so for several years.

Maggi Bevan who spends many hours looking after the Intermediate girls preparing them on route to the Advanced group.

Orlando Fricker and Simon Ramskill who regularly provide coaching on Sundays to the Advanced group of girls – giving Sean and myself an official day off.

Sean Kerns who is involved in everything, assists both the Intermediate and Advanced girls coaching and takes charge of the Ergo sessions as well as general boat maintenance duties. During National Championships Sean had to repair many holes in the project oarsome fleet of doubles and fit new slide rails. Speakers were fitted into the RBCS loaned quad and we also had to fit spacers to give the crews more room in the loaned RBCS quad boats. All this behind the scenes work is very important to ensuring crews are given the best possible chance to perform well on the day.

Tom Jost for his time in coaching the Advanced group of boys, supporting them through the Championships whilst commuting to Newark to train the Coupe Quad.

The junior athletes come from the following local schools:

Newlands School – Ally Brooks, Louise Entwistle, Katie Lion, Emma Kerns, Rebekah Kerns, Laurian Pepper,

Abbey School, Reading - Aimee Campbell, Carmel Bevan, Fifi Bevan

Sir William Boralse School - Natalie Trinder.

Claires Court School – Maddie Reynolds, Rebecca Reeve, Phil Clapp

Desborough School - Max Gerrard.

Local College - Jo Wright

Wycombe High School - Emily Webster, Lexy Dobson

Salesian School, Chertsey - Alice Ancora

Marist School - Anna Campbell

Wallingford School – Sophie Delannie

WJ14 2x event
Maidenhead entered 3 crews into this event, the ‘A’ crew of Rebekah Kerns and Alice Ancora went on to win the event in a time of 8mins 29secs and 5secs ahead of Silver. Carmel Bevan and Anna Campbell Maidenhead’s ‘B’ crew who are both only WJ13’s did well to make it through to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals they battled hard to try and finish in the top 3 places to make the final. With only 500mtrs to go it was very close between 3rd and 4th places and on the line Maidenhead just finished in forth place. For experience we entered a WJ12 crew of Lexy Dobson and Fifi Bevan and they put up a good performance to finish in 5th place in their heat.

WJ14 4x+ event
This young Maidenhead crew had to beat some good crews to get through to the finals. A very exciting final saw this crew move from 4th place at 500m, 4th place at 1000m, 3rd place at 1500m and through to 1st place during the final 500m. Maddie Reynolds, Emma Kerns, Katie Lion, Rebekah Kerns with cox Emily Webster were all please to win this all important race 2 seconds ahead of St Leonards School in a time of 7mins 55secs.

WJ15 2x event
Aimee Campbell and Ally Brooks a new combination put together for National Champs proved to be a formidable force. They won their heat by a convincing margin and then went on to do the same in the semi-finals. In the finals one double stayed with Maidenhead for about 500m and then this Maidenhead crew began to move away from the field to win by a convincing margin in a time of 8m 13sec and 6secs ahead of second place crew.

WJ15 4x+ event
Aimee Campbell and Ally Brooks were joined by Alice Ancora and Sophie Delanney. All for athletes had already competed in a final event within the past hour. So it was not certain how strong this crew would be for the final in such hot conditions. As it turned out Maidenhead led by half a length to the 1000 metre mark where a planned push took them out into clear water lead. During the last 500m of the course this crew moved out to a convincing margin and finshed just 3 seconds outside the course record in 7mins 44secs 5secs ahead of Dame Alice Harpur School.

MJ16 2x event
Max Gerrard and Phil Clapp entered into this J16 2x event. In both the heats and the semi-final they sculled well to a comfortable 2nd  position. However this very competitive final was run close behind their OJ2x semi final, despite this they managed to finish a creditable 4th behind Yarm. The GB France selected crew from Yarm School only managed to finish in 3rd place behind Molesey BC and a Scottish double. Maidenhead finished in a time of 7mins 10secs and 5secs behind the Bronze medalists.

MJ18 2x event
Again the pairing of Max Gerrard and Phil Clapp were entered in this Junior 18 event, sculling above their age group two and three years respectively. In the heat they finished in a comfortable second place behind Reading, then repeating this in a very hard fought semi final coming in second to Marlow A.  The final saw them move dramatically from the back of the field in the third 500 to third position with several lengths on the 4th placed Walton crew, maintaining this position to the finish line and a Bronze medal behind the Reading crew and 1st placed Marlow A crew. Quite an achievement for this young pairing.

OJ 15 4x+
A composite Maidenhead/Marlow crew (Sam Prosser and Matthew Reeve) competed in this event and made it through to the final. In the final this proved to be a hard race and the Maidenhead composite could only manage to finish in 6th place in a time of 7mins 04secs.

WJ18 2x event
Excellent heat and semi-final performances saw three Maidenhead athletes making it through to the finals of this event. In the final Maidenhead RC got off to a good start and moved from second place into 1st place at the 1000mtr mark. During the last 500mtrs the composite UTRC/Maidenhead (Natalie Trinder) crew attacked strongly and went past Maidenhead. At the finish the composite of Maidenhead/UTRC took the Gold medal in a time of 8mins 02secs and were awarded the England spot. Laurian Pepper and Jo Wright were pleased to take the Silver medal in a time of 8mins 7 secs and also pleased to hear just before the start of this final that they had been selected to represent Scotland.

W 2x event
Louise Entwistle and Melissa Petronikolos from Molesey BC raced in this senior event and as 2 top juniors they sculled a very mature race moving from 3rd to 1st place in the final 500metres. Winning margin was only 2 hundreths of a second in a time of 8:00sec. This is the first time since 1983 that a senior championship Gold medal has been won by the club. In this case by two juniors!

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club