Maidenhead Girls win Gold, Silver and Bronze.

On Saturday 21st April at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta at Holme Pierrepoint in Nottingham, girls from the Advanced and High Performance squads and boys from the Advanced squad at Maidenhead Rowing Club helped the 'Thames Upriver' Amateur Rowing Association region to win against the other 11 rowing regions in the country.

Racing was over a 6-lane 1500m course against a headwind or cross-headwind for most of the day and points were awarded ranging from 12 for first place down to 1 for twelfth place, so every place was worth fighting for.

Pictured: WJ14 2x Gold Medal winners Fifi Bevan and Gabby Watson. 

Girls
Maidenhead's WJ14 coxed quad of Felicity Young, Henrietta Jenkins, Rachael Aldridge, Lexy Dobson and cox Zoe Broadbent (pictured below with coach Laura Lion) had a very slow start and were lying in 5th place at the 500m mark, but they pushed their way through the field and by the finish were catching the eventual winners, Newark RC, representing the East Midlands, who won by only 2 seconds. The girls were happy to be through to the A final with the second fastest time in the two heats.

 In the final, the girls had a much improved start, but still fell behind into third place and, despite rowing through into second place, were still trailing Newark all the way down the course. They again began to close as the finish approached, but could not quite catch the leaders and finished in a battling second place by a similar margin to the heat, thus winning silver.

In the WJ14 double, Gabby Watson and Fifi Bevan powered off the start and won their heat with easily the fastest time of the two heats and, in a repeat performance, went on to dominate the final, winning by a comfortable 9 seconds over the crew from the North West in second place.

Maddie Reynolds and Aimee Broadbent competed in the WJ16 pairs in only their fifth outing together in a sweep-oared boat. After qualifying for the final by coming first in their heat with the third fastest qualification time overall, Maddie and Aimee had high hopes of a top three finish and a medal. However their hopes were dashed when the crew representing Thames Downriver steered across their lane and into them. After a restart the girls rowed valiantly but were pushed into 4th place by the same crew who had caused the earlier problem.

Maidenhead's other medal came in the WJ16 Eight (pictured right), where Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent, Anna Campbell and Rebekah Kerns and cox Charlotte Weeks joined up with four girls from Henley RC. To ensure that Thames Upriver would win the overall title, the composite had to finish no lower than third place, and rowing well down the course they had to push hard to finish in bronze medal position, thus confirming the region's win. A particularly satisfying result for Maddie Reynolds and Aimee Broadbent following their earlier disappointment.

Boys
In the boys J15 single Rob Ashburner qualified for the final where he finished a highly creditable 5th.

The boys J16 double of Ertan Hazine and Alex Ryde qualified 4th fastest overall in their heat and narrowly missed a bronze medal by a fraction of a second in the final when they were just caught on the line by the crew representing the Eastern region, nevertheless earning valuable points.

The boys J16 coxless quad comprising George Pointer, Rob Ashburner, Ross McCoriston and Simon Lilley finished second fastest overall in their heat and had great expectations of a medal. However, in the final, their rudder snapped after the first five strokes, unsettling them, and they had to steer the rest of the course using blade pressure. Nevertheless, they finished in fourth place, earning valuable points.