Shrewsbury celebrates its first female World Champion rowers

Over the Summer two Shrewsbury pupils were selected to row for Great Britain at the Under 19 World Rowing Championships.

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Alice Colclough (OS,23) was selected for the Women’s Eight while Natalia T (EDH, UVI) was selected to cox the Men’s Eight. This selection made Natalia the first ever female to represent GB in a men’s eight.

The Regatta was held from the 2^nd - 6^th August in Paris at the venue for the 2024 Olympic Games.

In their heat in the Women’s eight, Alice's crew placed second behind Romania while just pipping the USA. With only the winner going straight to the A final the crew had to race in the repechage with the top four to qualify. The crew had another close race with the USA with the roles reversed on the finish line with the crew coming second. Going into the Final the crew knew they were in with a shout of a medal but needed a strong performance to secure it. In the final the Romanian and German crews went of fast to lead the field through the first three timing markers of the two-thousand-meter course. In the closing stages of the race the USA and GB were battling hard as they had done in both previous races and saw their efforts draw them into the race with Germany and Romania. In the closing five strokes it looked to be anyone’s race and as they crossed the line there was 0.24 seconds separating the first four crews after six and a half minutes of racing.  Gold for Great Britain, Silver for Germany and Bronze for Romania and Shrewsbury’s first female World Champion!

In the Men’s eight, Natalia’s crew put in a commanding performance in the heat and were well inside the World’s best recorded time in their event over the first three markers before easing off to claim a comfortable win and a place in the A Final. In the final they were pressed hard over the first quarter of the race, but their length and rhythm separated them from the rest of the field through the middle of the race to secure a strong lead going into the final five hundred meters. They held off the chasing pack in the race for the line to secure gold and Shrewsbury’s second female World Champion!

The Senior Boys coach, Mr Clark coached the Men’s pair at the event. The crew were the third ranked GB boat boys’ boat and produced an impressive performance to make the A final in a very competitive field.

Katie Hale (MSH, UVII) was selected to represent Wales at the Home International Regatta in Ireland. Her crew won the five-hundred-meter sprint event at the regatta. Katie then followed this up by competing at the beach sprint trials for the Welsh team. She produced a fantastic performance to be the fastest female athlete at the trials and earn a spot to racing at the HIR Beach Sprints taking place this weekend at Saundersfoot, Wales.

At the Under 23 World Championships held in Bulgaria there were two Salopians competing with Grace Richards (OS, 21) racing in the Women’s Eight and Louis Nares (OS, 20) stroking the Men’s Eight. In the Women’s eight the crew placed fourth in the A final, narrowly missing out on bronze by 0.06 of a second. In the Men’s final the crew showed tremendous composure to come back from 5^th place in the first five hundred meters to win the event by just under a length.

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Athol Hundermark

Director of Rowing