The UK’s top thirteen junior girl scullers from across the UK assembled in Nottingham to carry out final trials over three days to seek selection into the Junior GB team. Maidenhead Rowing Club had a record number four scullers present, which is an achievement in itself as this final line up was against proven top junior scullers from all over the UK.

At the end of the trials, three of the four Maidenhead girls had won seats in GB crew boats which is an amazing testimony to both the depth of talent currently in the Junior Girls Squad and to the coaching expertise in the equally dedicated coaching team at Maidenhead.

On Wednesday evening all the junior scullers had to complete a 2k single sculling test and the end result of this test was a check on rankings and the objective to reduce the scullers from 13 to 12.

At the end of this first session the main effect for Maidenhead was that Laurian Pepper finished in a blanket finish with 2 other scullers and was given a time 0.8seconds behind Oakes of Warrington and  therefore did not make it through to day 2 of testing. Only 9 of the 13 scullers tested achieved GB selection and Maidenhead contributed 3 scullers to this years GB team.

The top 4 scullers went into day 2 to be speed tested for suitability for the World Rowing Junior Championships. To achieve this level of selection crews need to achieve 94%+ of predicted Gold Medal winning times. Louise Entwistle finished fourth in the single sculls test so had to impress on day 2. On day 2 Louise won the 2x seat racing matrix which then put her in a top group of 3 scullers to be further tested in 2x combinations. End result was that Louise did achieve 94% of Gold Medal winning time with Lucy from Hollingworth Lake but the GB selectors decided to go with just a single sculler, Lucy, at this top level junior regatta, as the Hollingworth Lake sculler had achieved close to 94% but had an unbeaten track record over the past few months winning at International regatta’s Munich and Amsterdam and against top international competition.

This decision resulted in Louise and Ruth from Hollingworth Lake RC being given the Coupe 2x slot and recognised as the top boat in the Coupe team. A great achievement in itself but disappointment for both girls as they had their sights set on attending the World Rowing Junior Championships this year.

At the same time, the remaining 8 scullers carried out extensive seat racing in two quads to achieve a ranking from 5 downwards. After 18 timed pieces over two days and all girls being tested to the max it was fantastic news to hear that Ally Brooks and Sophie Delaney had both made the next level selection for seats in the Coupe quad. Ally was awarded the stroke seat and Sophie winning her first GB vest was awarded the bow seat. They will be joined by Alice Leake at 2 from Newark RC and Sarah Cowburn at 3 from Worcester RC.

Both the Coupe quad and the double will be based for the next 3 weeks at Maidenhead RC. The Coupe sculling team is seen as particularly strong this year and it is a credit to the Maidenhead Club infrastructure, coaches, sponsors And all helpers at Maidenhead to have 3 girls out of only 9 that were selected in total on the sculling side.

Billy Brooks was appointed coach to the Coupe 2x and Neil Double from Hampton School was asked to coach the Coupe quad which has two Maidenhead members on board.

The boys final testing will be carried out at the same place from Wednesday 5th July and we hope to have news about Phil Clapp and David Jones and what they achieve at final trials next week.

On Tuesday 4th July Maidenhead juniors will be involved in one day of trials at Nottingham, competing for selection in the GB team at J16 level for a match against France on 9th July. Crews will race over 1500m at Nottingham and first across the line will be selected.

Maidenhead has 3 crews competing for GB France selection as follows:

• Coxless four of Aimee Campbell, Rebekah Kerns, Alice Ancora and Katie Lion;
• Double Scull of Sophie Delaney and Katie Lion;
• Single scull of Ally Brooks;

We wish all athletes going through final selection much success this week.

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors