J14 Girls
The Year 9 girls raced at Borne Regatta (by Chiswick Bridge) last weekend. We had two octuples and a quad racing. The quad (Cox Freya Bennett, with Maddie Russell, Molly Geater Milton, Freya Mills and Lucy Mountain) raced well and held their opposition from Team Keane to a one-length lead for most of the course. Unfortunately, instead of managing to pull through in the final stages, the crew lost its rhythm and fell back to lose by three lengths. Nevertheless it was a good race against the crew that went on to win in the final.
In the octos, our crew of Dorothy Pretzlik (cox), Esme Packman, Katarina Jimack, Emily Howcroft, Maddie Powell, Henny Rueckert, Matilda Bedi, Sofia Stavri and Phoebe Bucknall went out to race the semi-final against Kings’ Canterbury, who they successfully and easily dispatched. In their final this crew faced our second crew of Freya Bennett (cox), Georgia Haynes, Ella Mitchell, Lucy Taylor, Amber Billett, Rosie Youngman, Sas Donlan, Eva Hagan and Ana Chalmers. Dorothy’s crew took the lead in the initial stages, but only by a few seats, and as the bend unwound and the wind blew both crews a little off course, the second crew found their stride and rowed with power to put them under pressure. Moving into the second half of the race the crews drew level, and Freya’s steering and motivation kept her crew on course and motivated to work hard, whilst Dorothy’s crew shortened up and tried to rate too high. The end result was an amazing win for Freya’s crew, with a lot of learning for everyone involved. Well done girls for the squad’s first win!
Miss Elliott (Rowing Coach)
J14 Boys
In the heat, the J14 boys crew of Ben Roope, Ben Lindrea, Ollie Albel Stevenson, Jasper Taffs and Dan Mukerjee raced against Team Keane. It was a tight tussle all the way with some aggressive steering from Team Keane pushing our crew right of the stream. The final verdict was a two- length victory for Team Keane. In the final, our other crew of Jacob Erskine, Jack Geater Milton, Ben Frost, Isaac Thurnham and James Vidalhall-Mayger raced the same crew from Team Keane. Unfortunately, after a strong start, Jack’s footplate came off, meaning we were only rowing with three people and Team Keane were able to achieve an ‘easily’ verdict. However, in a turn of events, Team Keane were since disqualified for an unregistered crew change, meaning Emanuel were awarded the victory!
Mr Roberts (Rowing Coach)