Maidenhead Rowing Club had 4 athletes selected for this years European Championship Event, and they all went on to assist GB in taking 2nd place at the Coupe De La Jeunesse 2007 which took place in Varese, Italy. With four athletes from Maidenhead selected for this major International event this once again demonstrates the depth and quality of junior athletes we have at our club.

Great Britain put in a strong performance at this weekend's Coupe de la Jeunesse in Varese, Italy, finishing second overall and winning three Gold one Silver and seven Bronze across the 25-event, two-day competition. Two of Britain's golds came from the girls' quadruple scull who won their event on both days. The other gold came from the boys' coxed four.

Maidenhead's Sophie Delaney was sculling at 3 in the girls quad and considering she missed out on the first 4 months of training this season, due to illness, this was an excellent way to finish her season. This quad dominated their event and it was good to see how well they all got on both on and off the water. Finishing times were fast.

Maidenhead's Ally Brooks competed in the single sculls and produced two personal bests on the Saturday. The first came when she won her semi-final in 8m 03s and then went on to win a Bronze medal on both days. On the Saturday in the singles final she set a new PB of 8m 01s. On the Sunday, racing was very tight and with a slight head wind she managed to win her heat and then go on to edge out the French sculler to take a well deserved Bronze medal.

Maidenhead's Katy Lion selected to compete with Sophie Pain of Marlow RC in the JW 2x. Competition was very tough in this event and having just missed out on making the A final they finished second in the B final. Considering Katy has two more years to compete at this level this was an excellent achievement and good experience considering Katy is still only a WJ16.

Ertan Hazine was called up at the last moment to take a place in the spare pair as the selected person suffered an injury in the final week of training. This was a tough task for anyone to take on as time is needed to get a coxless pair moving fast. Ertan did well to compete in the spare pairs race and finished in 3rd position both days.

Italy were the overall event winners whilst France were third. Britain's young team pulled themselves up from third to second on the Sunday after trailing both Italy and France at the end of Saturday's competition.

Poland's presence this weekend meant that another quality nation has joined the Coupe line–up to provide opposition for the top nations. The fight at the top of the girls' points table was particularly intense this year with Italy taking the honours on 82 points with GB just one point behind them on 81 points and France third with 74.

COMBINED 12 NATIONS ON POINTS
 1. Italy 196
 2. GREAT BRITAIN 187
 3. France 177
 4. Poland 128
 5. Spain 108
 6. Netherlands 104
 7. IRELAND 81
 8. Swiss Rowing Federation 77
 9. Belguim 76
10. Hungary 70
11. Austria 59
12. Portugal 34

GB CREWS FOR COUPE DE LA JEUNESSE
(NB – listed by athlete name followed by club in brackets).

Women's Quadruple Scull
Olivia Oakes (Warrington RC)
Katherine Copeland (Yarm School)
Sophie Delaney (Maidenhead RC)
Eleanor Piggott (Bedford High School)
Coach: Andy Clarke (Yarm School)

Women's Double Scull
Sophie Pain (Marlow RC)
Katy Lion (Maidenhead RC)
Coach: Chris Boothroyd (Henley RC)

Women's Single scull
Ally Brooks (Maidenhead RC)
Coach: Billy Brooks (Maidenhead RC)

Men's Reserve Pair
Ertan Hazine (Maidenhead Rowing Club)
Guy Arnold (Westminster School BC)
Coach: Nick De Cata Walton RC.

Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors