Stratford Boat Club's rising stars shine at British Rowing Junior Championships
STRATFORD Boat Club’s youngsters excelled at the prestigious British Rowing Junior Championships that were held over three days.
The first J15 rower up for the club on Friday was Charles Happel who was rowing a single scull in his time trial.
Over a distance of 1.5km, Happel sculled with great technique to reach the D final in 6:20.
In the 2km final, Happel produced an even better performance to finish second in 8:17, less than four seconds off first place.
The J15 ladies double of Grace Beason and Ruby Brooker-Collins qualified for their E final in a time of 6:35.
Their final delivered one of the most exciting side-by-side racing of the day against Queen Elizabeth High.
The two crews were chasing for second place and after digging deep, it was Beason and Brooker-Collins who finished runners-up in a time of 9:05.82, beating QEH by just 0.05s.
The J15 coxed squad of Kate Richardson, Maddie Hall, Harriet Noyes and Amalia Richardson, coxed by Imo Hill, qualified for the AB semi-final after finishing their time trial in eighth, clocking 5:59.
In the semi-final, the crew finished fourth in 7:58 to qualify for the B final.
Here, the Stratford crew sculled at an extremely high rate to win in a time of 8:00.9, beating Cantabrigian by eight seconds.
On Saturday it was the turn of the J16 squad to take to the water and first up was Tomi Wilcock and Toby Sartain in the time trial for the open singles.
Wilcock and Sartain finished 17th and 25th respectively to reach the C and E finals later in the day.
Wilcock struggled with the heat in the C final and came sixth while Sartain didn’t get the chance to race in the E final as his opponent pulled out of competing.
The women’s pair of Freya Watts and Fleur Griffiths secured their spot in the A final after finishing sixth in their time trial.
In the final the pair stayed in contention all the way down the 2km course to finish in sixth.
Griffiths then stepped into the women’s four alongside Lucy Browne, Honour Keil, Bella Chappelhow and J14 cox Lucy Sartain.
The girls put in a stellar performance to finish sixth and book a place in the A final where they again finished sixth.
The third and final day of the championships meant it was the turn of the J18 squad to take on the best crews in the country over the 2km course at Holme Pierrepont.
First on the water was the women’s double scull of Jasmine Moutney and Isabelle Watts.
Watts did not disappoint in her first national regatta and teamed with the sculling prowess of Moutney, they finished a respectable 28th.
Next on the Nottinghamshire course was the WJ18 coxless quadruple sculls of Alice Baines, Amelie Sartain, Maiya James and Mili Wilcock.
The girls put in a sterling effort to secure 14th place and a spot in the C final, just 1.4s away from semi-final contention.
In a close C final that had the spectators gripped, Stratford would win the race by the tiniest of margins, beating Trafford Rowing Club by just 0.18s.
