Rowers Deliver Confident Performances at Regattas

The long weekend saw our talented rowers take part in regattas against schools from across the country, delivering impressive performances in some hard-fought battles on the water.

Wallingford Regatta

The Senior Boys and Girls Fours raced at Dorney Lake in the annual Wallingford Regatta over the weekend in excellent conditions.

The event enabled our sweep, rowing crews to compete over the 2000 metre course and measure themselves against their opposition for the upcoming National Schools’ Regatta.

The crews raced well in their heats, attempting to gain a position in the single, six boat final on offer from the large fields. They all raced well in their side-by-side heats, with our Boys Coxed Four placing fourth in their heat and posting the fifth fastest time of all the crews in the heats (Joseph R, Luke M, Felix T, Bentley L (U6) and Freddie G (L6) enabling them to progress to the final.

The final was fast and the crews sorted themselves into some great battles, leaving King’s and Shrewsbury School to fight for the final couple of places. We were ultimately beaten into sixth place, but the crew had a terrific race and now set their sights on the next steps.

Event	Crew	Heat	Final
Division One	Op Schools 4-	Oliver C	6th
		Joe S
		Will M
		George G
	Op Schools 4+	Felix T	5th	6th
		Bentley L
		Luke M
		Freddie G
		Joseph R
Division Two	W Schools 4-	Ava T	5th
		Merri L
		Issy S
		Emily E
	W Schools 4+	Emelia S	5th
		Sophie E
		Jess M
		Jas S

Junior Sculling Regatta

Monday saw many members of the Boat Club from the sculling discipline descend on the same waters at Dorney Lake to take part in the Junior Sculling Regatta.

The event attracted over five hundred crews from across the country, with an international flavour due to the presence of a South African team racing in many of the events.

Each crew raced a time trial over 1900 metres to reach a limited number of finals, dependent on the number of entries. Our Senior Boys Quads faced incredibly tough competition and finished just outside of the cut, with our A crew only one second off reaching a final.

The Fifth Form Boys sculled extremely well to place ninth overall and move into the B-Final, whilst the FF Girls took 11^th place to also progress to the B-Final. Our Upper Remove Girls took 22^nd and 27^th places, ensuring the A crew a place in the D-Final.

The finals offered the crews a chance to race side-by-side against similarly matched crews and offered some very exciting battles.

Henrietta H, Imogen B, Hermione H, Arabella J and Sophie O-S fought well to claim third place in their J15 Coxed Quad Scull final.

Henrietta V, Florence V, Issy W and Grace M had a great first half of their final of the J16 Quad Scull, just losing a little pace in the final stages they had to settle of fifth.

The J16 Boys Quad had an epic battle down the entire course with Tiffin School. Their bows were locked together across each timing point, where the clock showed less than a second between them. The final run into the finish saw our boys creep forward by the tiniest of margins with each stroke and enabled them to finish ahead by less than a canvas and secure third place.

The weekend offered some great preparations for the summer racing campaign and the rowers look forward to the coming events over the next few weeks.

Event	Crew	TT	Final
J18 4x	Oliver R	25th
	Lucas C
	Freddie B
	Seb M
J18 4x	Tom P	19th
	Oliver Y
	Alex M
	Rowan C
J16 4x	Hugo M	9th	B – Final: 3rd
	Ed C
	Matt P
	Nathan S
WJ15 4x+	Arabella J	22nd	D-Final: 3rd
	Hermione H
	Henrietta H
	Imogen B
	Sophie O-S
WJ15 4x+	Evelyn R	27th
	Caitlin S
	Molly W
	Cecily J
	Elissa O
WJ16 4x-	Grace M	11th	B-Final: 5th
	Issy W
	Flo V
	Henrietta V