Maidenhead Rowing Club junior athletes won 3 medals over the weekend of 22-24 May at the National Schools Regatta, held at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham. For many schools and clubs, this is the biggest event of the year with around 3,500 competitors contesting 50 events. Most events were raced as a time trial initially to decide the 12 semi-finalists, followed by the semi-finals and then the final. Events for younger crews were raced over 1000m on the Friday and over 200m on Saturday and Sunday.

The Girls J15 Coxed Four of Emily Birch, Zoe Broadbent, Grace Alington and Hannah Wallace, coxed by Ella Campbell had a less happy day. It started well as they qualified sixth fastest for the semi-finals, but in the semi-final the starter set the crews off before they were ready, and despite chasing well all the way down the course, they were disappointed to finish fourth, just missing out on a place in the final.

Saturday
On Saturday the Girls J16 eight of Zoe Broadbent, Emily Birch, Megan Haines, Kate Ryde, Grace Alington, Hannah Wallace, Henrietta Jenkins and Lexy Dobson, coxed by Maddie Reynolds came second in their semi-final behind an experienced Headington School crew. In the 6-boat final, the crews from Headington and Molesey battled it out for first place, which Molesey eventually won, while Maidenhead followed them down the course pulling out more than a length margin ahead of the rest of the field, to win the bronze medal. This was a great performance from the eight as they had only five outings in this combination and half the crew were rowing one year above their age category.

Later on Saturday in the Championship Women's Junior Double Sculls, Alice Ancora and Gabby Watson qualified only third from their semi-final, but then turned on a terrific performance in the final, coming through from fifth place after 500m to third place after 1000m and then to second place after 1500m. They then maintained this position to win a well-deserved silver medal just behind Sir William Borlase School. This is a very tough event and to win a silver medal with Gabby still only a WJ16 was a significant achievement.

Jess Kemple competed in the WJ17 single sculls event on Saturday. This was her first multi-lane regatta and she was unlucky because she is a lightweight and had to scull into a stiff headwind so, unfortunately, she just missed on on qualifying from the time trial.

Sunday
Results on Sunday, in contrast, were disapointing. Both the WJ16 quad of Henrietta Jenkins, Megan Haines, Kate Ryde and Lexy Dobson and the WJ18 quad of Alice Ancora, Gabby Watson, Aimee Broadbent and Fifi Bevan won places in their semi-finals after qualifying via the time trial, but both narrowly missed out on final places by finishing fourth in their semi-finals.

The Championship boys J18 Quad event was widely anticipated to be a showdown between Westminster School and Maidenhead as each has one win against the other this season. In their semi-final, the Maidenhead crew of Ross McCoriston, Rob Ashburner, Jack Beaumont (rowing up 3 age categories) and Alex Ryde recorded an almost identical time to rivals Sir William Borlase and to Westminster in the other semi-final, to set up what was anticipated to be a close final. However, in the final, Westminster had a terrific first quarter of the race and were leading by well over a length with 500m gone, with Maidenhead trailing in fifth place. After this slow start, Maidenhead fought back into contention for a medal, but with Westminster well clear, they were fighting only for a minor place. Unfortunately, the effort Maidenhead used up getting back in contention meant that they faded slightly at the end, narrowly missing out on the bronze medal.

J15 Single Scull silver medallist, Jack Beaumont

J15 Single Scull silver medallist, Jack Beaumont

Women's Junior Double Sculls, Alice Ancora and Gabby Watson

WJ16 Eight