 Maidenhead Juniors continued to impress at GB France trials held in Nottingham on Tuesday 10th July. The selectors witnessed the boys and girls put in some extremely good performances. The top result from the club was by Ertan Hazine and Alex Ryde who both won their first GB vest racing in a coxless pair. They will compete in the GB v France match which will be held at Holme Pierrepoint on Monday 16th July. Special thanks and credit is given to John Truswell and Derek Cook for the coaching work and support they have provided to the boys selected.
With nine coxless pairs competing for this vest, including rowing schools such as Radley, Kings Chester, Latymer and Westminster, the competition was always going to be tough. Both Maidenhead and Latymer won their heats and as the times were within 0.4secs the selectors asked Maidenhead and Latymer to return to the start and race the course again. Maidenhead new what they had to do and the plan was to get a lead off the start, when they came past me at the 750m mark they were 1 length down - the race not going exactly to plan. Latymer probably thought they had this race won at the half-way point. Little did they know that both these boys wanted that GB vest and from the half-way point the pair raised there rate of striking to 38 and with 500m to go they had reduced the lead to ½ length. Raising the rate higher to 40 for the last 500m the Maidenhead pair went swiftly passed the Latymer pair and crossed the line ½ length ahead to win this most important race at J16 level. This was a gutsy performance from two very strong Maidenhead athletes, one of whom was sick after the first heat so the pressure was immense for this final race off.
Next best performance came from J16 boys of Simon Lilley, Ross McCoriston, George Poynter and Robert Ashburner who decided on the day to race in a coxed four for the final 4 places available for the 8 selection. Maddie Reynolds coxed this four. With six fours racing over the 1500m course it was great to see Maidenhead and Canford School/Bedford leading all the other top rowing School crews. The race was very close with Canford School rating 3 pips higher than Maidenhead all the way down the course. Maidenhead won the heat but only by 0.2secs so the selectors again asked Maidenhead and Canford School/Bedford to go back to the start to race again. In the re-row this was again an excellent race with Maidenhead rowing a much longer stroke and looking very good. Canford took a ½ length lead at the start and Maidenhead on several occassions pegged them back to approx 1/4 length, but with Canford now rating 4 pips higher than Maidenhead they held on to a ½ length lead to the finish. This was a really excellent performance from these young guns as they have all done very little rowing but managed to switch from sculling to rowing on the day and race and win against a number of leading Schools including Hampton, St Edwards, Kings Chester.
Other results from the match:
Girls coxless four of Aimee Braodbent and Alice Ancora teamed up with Evesham RC to race off for the last 4 places in the girls eight. This scratch coxed four performed well to finish 2nd in their heat and second fastest crew overall so just missing out on winning places in the girls eight.
Boys quad Simon Lilley, Ross McCoriston, George Poynter, Robert Ashburner finsihed a good second to a fast Evesham crew but ahead of rivals Borlase and Windsor Boys School.
Girls double of Katy Lion and Alice Ancora finished 3rd behind Yarn School and Marlow.
Girls pair of Aimee Broadbent and Maddie Reynolds finished 5th.
Girls quad Maddie Reynolds, Aimee Broadbent, Alice Ancora and Katy Lion finished 4th.
Final Trials for the J18 boys finished on Sunday. J18 Girls final trials finished last weekend and once all the results are published, a report will be issued. I am pleased to say that at this stage the Club had 3 female athletes selected for the Coupe de le Jeunesse match in Varese, Italy on August 3rd and 4th. This is an excellent performance from the club juniors to gain further international honours. |
