Medal haul for Salopians at National Schools' Regatta

The Boat Club took 11 crews to compete at the National Schools’ Regatta at Dorney Lake, showcasing some impressive rowing from Salopians.

The first up was the J15s racing on Friday. Four J15 boats took part in a time trial which saw the crews split into six boat A, B and C finals. With the course heavily wind-affected, crews needed a strong performance in the time trial in order to challenge for places in the finals.  

The J15A Boys VIII were drawn into A final and produced an impressive performance to lead the field through the 400meter mark from the unfavoured lane five. Sadly, the crew were unable to hold the position in the crosswind and saw their medal charge thwarted in the closing strokes having to settle for fourth place (of 22). The J15A Girls VIII placed tenth in their time trial, before producing a good row in the B final placing fourth. The J15B Boys VIII placed fifth in the C final of their event. The J15 Girls coxed four placed twenty second in the time trial for their event. 

Saturday saw the Senior and J16 Boys competing in VIII’s and the Senior Girls in two Coxed Fours. The 2nd VIII rowed well in the time trial and despite falling short by only six seconds to the winners, narrowly missed out on a place in the A final. In the B Final they had a solid row to place second behind Eton. 

It was wonderful to have a 3rd VIII racing in the regatta and despite some challenges in getting the crew out in the weeks leading up to the event, they performed strongly to place fourth in their event. 

The J16A VIII had a good row in the B final and did well from the unfavoured lane seven to turn over two crews they lost to in the time-trial to place 5th in their final. 

The Senior girls had two crews competing in the Championship Coxed Fours event. The crews placed fifth and seventeenth of twenty-two in the time trial. Following the Semifinals, the crews lined up in the A and C finals. The crew in the A Final put in a tremendous performance to overturn the deficits of the time trial and semi-final to put themselves in medal contention through the middle of the race. The crew held off a late charge from a Stratford to win a fantastic bronze medal in this Championship event. The second of the two coxed fours had solid row in the C final to place second. 

The race format for the 1st VIII varied from the rest of the crews with a heat and repechage taking place on the Saturday and Semi Finals and Finals taking place on the Sunday. The 1st VIII came third in their heat and needed to go through the repechage where they placed second to go through to the A/B Semifinal on the Sunday. 

The stiff crosshead wind persisted into day three of the event which made the 1st VIII’s target of reaching the A final extremely difficult from lane six. The crew put in valiant effort in the semifinal but missed out the last spot for the A final. In the B final the crew put in a commanding performance to break clear from the field early and build that gap to a win by six seconds across the line. 

The Senior Girls top boat was entered to race in the Coxless Four. The crew had to be patient to get their chance on the final day of the regatta. It was worth the wait as the girls put in a fantastic row in the time trial to win and give themselves every chance to compete for the medals. They built on this performance in the semifinal to take the win and secure one of the better lanes for the final.  

In the final they faced a stiff challenge from Hinskey who had won the other semifinal. The crews traded blows over the first half of the course before Hinksey managed to break clear to take the win. The silver medal won by the girls was a significant achievement of which they can be incredibly proud and capped off a fantastic set of results for the squad. 

Athol Hundermark

Director of Rowing