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Silver Medal at British Indoor Rowing Championships |
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Monday, 28 November 2005 |
The 2005 British Indoor
Rowing Championship took place on 20th November in the National Indoor Arena in
Birmingham. With nearly 3,000 entrants, the event is the biggest indoor
rowing race in the world and the biggest mass-participation indoor sporting
event in Britain.
Several of our Junior rowers
exchanged the delights of Maidenhead’s cool, sunny river banks for the imposing,
steely banks of rowing machines. Although the main focus of their
training is competitive sculling, this competition provides a way of achieving a
National ranking, and comparing the strength, power and shear determination of
these young athletes. Many of the other entrants are from rowing clubs,
but a significant number are from other sports and fitness
clubs.
The
younger age groups raced over fixed times, whilst 16s and older battled over the
traditional 2K distance.
J11 & J12 - 2 minute race
Our youngest competitor, Emily Beaumont (WJ11), rowed well to come 7th with an average split time of 2:27.4. Zoe Broadbent (WJ12) came 15th out of 34 (Av split 2:17.0).
Jack Beaumont (J12) excelled to take 5th place (AvSplit 1:58.6) in a field of 44.
J13s - 3 minute race
The WJ13 event attracted the largest group of junior women, 75 competitors all together. Felicity Young, Rebecca Reeves and Fifi Bevan came 11th (Av split 2:02.3), 13th (AvSplit 2:03.3) and 14th (AvSplit 2:03.5) respectively with Henrietta Jenkins 49th (AvSplit 2:16.8). Felicity, Rebecca and Fifi achieved 733, 730 and 729 metres over the three minute race, an impressive feat of coordination!
J14s - 4 minute race
Carmel Bevan was 14th out of 67 girls (AvSplit 2:02.0). Robert Ashburner came 9th (AvSplit1:48.1) of 105 boys.
J15 - 5 minute race
Aimee Broadbent came 12th (66 entrants) averaging 1:57.6 and Matt Powell was 15th (AvSplit 1:44.6) in another large group of 104 competitors.
J16 - 2K race
Three junior men entered this event. The winning average split time was an impressive 1:38.5. Our boys performed well to take 16th (Adam Lilley 7:04.2), 29th (Tim Wildbore 7:17.0) and 35th (Michael Compton 7:28.2).
Womens lightweight and Womens Junior 18 Heaveyweight
In the Women’s Open Lightweight category Vicki Sims was 10th in 7:30.1. World Class Start athlete Philippa Cuss came 19th in the WJ18H event (7:53.0).
Veterans
Karon Phillips raced in the Womens 50-54 Heavyweight age catagory and produced a great result for herself and the club, winning a Silver medal in a time of 7:43.
Veteran heavyweight men competing were Peter Smithson (M55-59) coming 9th in 7:10.9 and Jamie Broadbent (M45-49) whose time of 7:15.8 put him 46th.
Well done to all who competed. To row to exhaustion in front of the hundreds of spectators – athletes and supporters – in the National Indoor Arena, must take real courage.
My thanks to Kate Ashburner who was the local roving reporter reporting on this event in Birmingham.
Billy
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club |
