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Entwistle wins GB vest for Munich Regatta |
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Friday, 01 April 2005 |
 Louise Entwistle (pictured) was one of three junior athletes from Maidenhead who competed in GB junior trials at Nottingham over 3 days last week. Competition was tough for all 3 Maidenhead athletes, bearing in mind these trials were looking to select the top one or two crews for Munich Regatta from the top 25 male and female rowing athletes in the country.
These trials were now looking at athletes competing in one of two streams - a sculling stream or a rowing stream. All 3 Maidenhead athletes competed in the sculling stream. These trials were all about finding out who should be in the top junior male and female crews for the Munich Regatta and probably be one step away from the World Junior Championships. Trials later in the year will be looking to select further crews for the Coupe and GB-France match.
On the girls sculling side, only 4 athletes were selected for this top event. Louise Entwistle of Maidenhead Rowing Club was one of these athletes who finished a very credible 3rd place in the sculling trials on the first day. This put Louise in 4th overall position in the GB junior sculling stream trials, as the number 1 sculler was ill. During the next two days of trials Louise trained in a double with Fern Cotterill, of Wycliffe College, who is a leading Junior athlete and competed at the Coupe de la Jeunesse for GB last year. In training they were tested on boat speed and achieved 91% of the World Junior Gold medal winning time in their double over 3 x 1250mtrs. Greater than 90% was required to be selected for Munich Regatta. Munich Regatta is where the top GB junior crews are trialled out to see if they are ready for World Championship level competition. Louise being only 16 will be the youngest member of this small team. It has probably been around 15 years since a female member from Maidenhead competed for GB.
Dave Jones and Sam Ashburner competed well in the single trials and then in seat racing in quads to find out which boys should be selected for the top junior boys quad. In the end 5 boys were selected for the quad, leaving Dave and Sam just outside this top group of junior GB scullers. Both Dave and Sam had not been 100% well over the past few months which I am sure affected their progress at these trials. They now have a couple of months to improve their fitness levels and again compete for a seat in one of the GB boats. Next GB junior small boat regatta will take place at Dorney Lake on Sunday 24th April, all juniors seeking selection will be required to participate, so this will be the next point in time for all Maidenhead athletes to demonstrate their improvement in boat speed.
This selection for Lousie is fantastic news and a credit to Louise for all the hard work she is putting in to training. Louise is fortunate that she has a good team of junior athletes to train with at Maidenhead and the result of all their hard training is showing through with all the successes the whole squad is achieving. I would just like to mention all the coaches at Maidenhead that offer this opportunity for athletes to progress through the ranks at Maidenhead. It is important that we have coaches that continue to guide all junior athletes to progress to a level they feel comfortable with, be it Learn-to-row, Begineers, Intermediate or through to this Advanced junior sculling level. The junior squad is looking strong and it is good to note that 9 junior athletes (4 boys and 5 girls) have been involved in the GB trials process this year to date and the squad continues to look strong as we look back at the group, especially the J15 and J14 girls.
Billy Brooks
Captain Juniors
Maidenhead Rowing Club |
