Maidenhead sent along three girls crews and two boys crews to Marlow Regatta, held at Dorney Lake on Saturday 17th June. This leading international regatta sees crews form as far as Loch Lomond and the USA competing and on a blisteringly hot day, the heat over the 2000m course took its toll.
Three Maidenhead crews conquered conditions and opposition: The Women's J16 Quadruple Sculls, The Women's J15 Coxed Quadruple Sculls and a Maidenhead/Leander/Tideway Scullers School composite crew in the School/Junior Quadruple Sculls.
In Maidenhead’s first race of the day the WJ14 4x+ crew of Fifi Bevan , Lexy Dobson, Gabby Watson, Rebecca Reeve with cox Emma Sanerkin, who were racing up a year, started well but found the heat and blistering pace difficult to keep up with, however, by the finish Maidenhead were catching the Marlow crew who were 2nd to the eventual winners, a composite crew from Star and St Neots, the Star crew being made up of a strong double crew who had got silver at The National Schools Regatta.
The WJ15x+ crew of Katie Lion, Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent and Carmel Bevan with cox Emily Webster, also had a straight final and came up against rivals Bedford High School who they had narrowly beaten at The National schools Regatta. Maidenhead, although behind from the start, under the control of unflappable stroke Katie Lion, started to increase the pace and took control in the last 1000m to finish 6 seconds ahead of the Bedford High crew.
There was another straight final in the WJ16 4x. Aimee Campbell, Sophie Delaney, Alice Ancora and Rebekah Kerns built up their lead from the start and never looked like they would be caught, crossing the line 8 seconds ahead of Bedford High School with Marlow RC in 3rd place. Alice Ancora subbed in on the day as Katie Lion was still feeling the effects of winning the WJ15 race. This demonstrates the strength in squad around this age group as half this crew are only WJ15’s so can race again next year in this event. This young squad of athletes will now be preparing for trials on July 4th to gain selection for an under 16 GB match against France to be held in Abbeville, France on 9th July.
In the School/Junior Quadruple Sculls, the Maidenhead/Leander/Tideway Scullers School composite crew won the Public Schools Challenge Cup. The crew of Phil Clapp (Maidenhead), Dave Jones (Maidenhead), Tom Ing (Leander) and Stephen Robinson (TSS) dominated the racing both in their heat, where they beat the rest of the field by 26 seconds, and in the final where they finished in 6m 17s, 11 seconds ahead of opponents Windsor Boys School. This time was within a second of the winning crews in the Elite Men’s event.The crew’s next event will be the Fawley Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.
The Maidenhead boys J15 4x+ took second place in their race – a straight final against crews from Windsor Boys School, Tideway Scullers School and Kent School Boat Club USA. Maidenhead’s crew of Robert Ashburner, George Poynter, Ertan Hazine and Ross McCorriston, coxed by Emma Sanerkin, sculled well, leading from the start to the 1000m mark. At 1500m the Windsor Boys crew just caught up with them. Maidenhead continued to scull strongly holding off a fast finish from the American crew from Kent School. The final times were Windsor Boys School (7:00), Maidenhead RC (7:05) and Kent School USA (7:08).
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors |
