Sprints and sculls keep St Mary's rowers busy
Kicking off this term's rowing in style, St Mary's won the Women's J14 double sculls for the Eastern Region on 22 April at the Junior Inter Regional regatta. This event brings teams selected from 12 regions across Great Britain to compete over 1500m.
Having been selected for the Eastern region team, Anna T. and Eilidh H. (Year 9), racing for Cantabrigian rowing club, won their semi-final with ease. They then went on to win the final by eight seconds from the 2nd place crew, in a dominant performance at Nottingham Home Pierrepoint.
Making the most of the early May Bank Holiday weekend, fourteen St Mary's crews took part in some side-by-side racing on the Sunday, at the Cambridge City sprints - a 500m race in front of the Cambridge college boathouses. With crews ranging from year 7 taking part in their first race through to our J1 squad getting some race practice in for bigger events, the City sprints is always one of the most enjoyable events of the year with something for everyone.
There were some close loses for several of our year 10's with Leonie H. and Esme L. losing by ½ length to the eventual winners of WJ16 2x, and Joelle A. making the final of WJ17 singles, racing two years up, before losing by a length. Our WJ13 4x+ narrowly missed out on a win with a slight clip of the bank costing them a well-earned lead in the final strokes to lose by just a canvas.
There were wins for our WJ16 4x- of Olivia H., Jess A., Tilly T. and Emerson A. in preperation for the National school's regatta and Amelie B. won two tight races against other St Mary's scullers (Sunmyung C. and Astrid R. M.) to win WJ13 singles.
Rowing Coach, Oliver Frazer was delighted to see the turn-out, saying:
"Overall, it was great to see so many of our crews out enjoying rowing."
Bank Holiday Monday saw two St Mary's crews head to Eton Dorney to take on crews from around the country, at the Junior Sculling Regatta.
Our Year 9 quad of Charlotte M., Nicolette L., Daisy N. and Honour C., with Phoebe T. coxing, had a great first half of their time trial in WJ14 4x+'s and looked to make the B-final based off the crews around them before an injury and then equipment issue cost them their chances of side-by-side racing. It was a promising performance though and bodes well for the National School's Regatta at the end of the month.
After their recent success at the Junior inter-regional regatta with Cantabrigian rowing club, Anna T. and Eilidh H. were back in St Mary's colours this time in WJ14 2x. Their day got off to a flyer, winning the time trial by 20 seconds and then repeating the feat in the A-final, walking away from the field in the middle thousand to bring home the gold medal.
Rowing at St Mary's is open to everyone, regardless of experience.