The rowers from ERBC have had their most successful National Schools Regatta ever over the weekend winning the Katrina Jacks Trophy for Girls Junior 15 Coxed Fours, the Arundel Cup for Boys Junior 16 Coxed Fours and the Leander Cup for Girls Championship Coxless Pairs. The Girls Junior 16 Coxed Four won fantastic silver medals and the Boys Championship Coxed Four narrowly missed out on the medals taking the 4th spot. National Schools Regatta is the largest junior regatta in the world attracting more than 5000 rowers from over 350 schools to Eton Dorney, home of the rowing events at the London 2012 Olympics.
Friday saw the Junior 14 Octuples compete over 1k. Eva Fowler, Clodagh Donaghy, Aimee Turner, Penny Huddlestone, Leah Topping, Freya McNeary, Maeve Roulston – McAuliffe and cox Milena Remedios had the 9th fastest time from the 23 crews taking part,qualifying for the B final in the afternoon where they finished in 4th place. A top 10 finish in the UK is no mean feat and the girls should be very proud of themselves; 4 of the crew only started to row in September.
The Boys – Caelan Moore, Joel Crean, Oliver Jennings, James McAleer, Oliver Krawczyk, Edward Dawa, Evan Clarke, Harry Welsh and Rachel Cathcart rowed really well to qualify for the D Final where they finished 3rd.
Saturday brought fantastic results for ERBC with twins Tori and Brooke Davis, Emily Black. Abbie McCarthy Magwood and cox Rachel Cathcart registering the fastest time in the GJ15 4+ time trial, qualifying them for the afternoon’s A Final where they fought hard to hold off the challenge from the Henley Rowing Club girls to win the Katrina Jacks Trophy by 4.74 secs. This was an incredible second National Schools Regatta win for Emily Black, Brooke Davis and Abbie McCarthy Magwood after their Junior 14 Octuple win last year.
Luke Bailey, Ryan Topping, Harry Coalter, Austin Cassidy and Cox Katelyn Fee taking the Arundel Cup for Junior 16 Coxed Fours in a time of 7.09.38, they were 2.65 secs ahead of St George’s College Boat Club in 2nd and 7.85 secs ahead of Windsor Boys School who were 3rd.
The Girls’ 16 4+A crew Zara Welsh, Naomi Robinson, Rhea Cartin McCloskey, Hannah Armstrong and cox Jessica Thompson had a great time trial clocking the 3rd fastest time out of the 19 crews taking part. This qualified them for the A Final where they came from 4th at the 500m mark to take the silver medals behind the girls from Godolphin & Latymer in a time of 7.58.22.
The Boys Junior 15 4+ Cillian Donaghy, Ollie Powell, Matthew Montgomery, Joshua Ihnat and cox won the B Final after being unlucky not to qualify for the A Final, finishing 7th in the time trial with the top 6 taking the A final spots.
The Girls 15 4+ B won their C Final and so did the Girls 16 4+ B. The Boys J16 8+ finished in the top 12, qualifying for the B Final after the morning’s time trial.
Oliver Khew, Hugo McChesney, George Kernaghan, William Bogle and Abbey Wilson narrowly missed out on medals finishing 4th in the Ch 4+ A Final.
Sunday saw Jamie Dunlop and Ben Cameron qualify for the D Final of the BJ16 2X after their time trial where they came a fantastic 2nd to Maidenhead Rowing Club in a time of 7.48.31.
Acorn Cassidy and Isabella Wright blew their competition in the Leander Cup for Championship Coxless Pairs out of the water finishing their time trial in a time of 7.59.00, 8.59 secs ahead of the crew from Glasgow Academy Rowing Club. In the A Final they took control of the race from the start leading all the way down a very rough 2K course to cross the finish line in a fantastic time of 4.46.08. This was an amazing achievement for both Acorn and Isabella especially when Isabella raced Junior 14 Nat Schools last year and this was a Junior 18 event.
The future for ERBC’ rowers looks incredibly bright as they go into the last few weeks of training ahead of the Irish Rowing Championships. Many thanks to the coaches who travelled to Eton Dorney with the rowers and to the parents who made the trip to cheer them on.
