Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury celebrates Gold medals for senior crews at National Schools' Regatta

June 7th 2024

Twelve Shrewsbury crews raced at the National Schools’ Regatta with two of our teams coming home with Gold medals.

The event, which took place on 25th and 26th May at Dorney Lake, saw 5295 competitors racing from 157 schools and clubs.

The crews took part in a 1900m time trial followed by seeded finals over the full 2000m Olympic course. All the crews put in creditable performances with ten out of the twelve crews placing among the top twelve nationally and earning a place in the A or B Final of their event.

The highlights of the regatta were wins for both the Senior Boys Coxed Four and the Senior Girls Coxless Four. The Senior Boys Coxed four placed second in the time trial so went in the final with work to be done. They made a strong start to lead the field through the first 500m. They built on this lead through each of the markers to break contact and go a length clear in the closing stages and secure the school’s first win at the regatta since 2017. The crew won the Hedsor Cup for Championships Coxed Fours, which the Boat Club last won in 2012. It was a fantastic performance from the crew made up of Toby M (I, UVI), Matt L (O, UVI), Hugo RP (RAJC, UVI), Ben P (RAJC, UVI) and cox Nat T (EDH, UVI).

The Senior Girls Coxless Four had to wait until the Sunday to show what they could do and made a clear statement with a commanding row in the time trial to place first by five seconds from the chasing field, which saw the four chasing crews place within a second of each other.

In the final the girls were clinical in their execution at the start to take a two second lead through the first timing mark. They steadily increased the lead to go clear water up through the thousand-meter mark. The crew looked extremely well drilled as they maintained their length and composure in the closing stages of the race to take gold and the Colts Cup in the Boat Club’s first ever girls win at the National Schools’ Regatta. A fantastic achievement for the crew of Katie H (MSH, UVI), Tara L (M, LVI), Anni S (EDH, UVI) and Sophie W (EDH, UVI).