Thanks to Steve for this update from Ryde Rowing Club. Ed
Ryde Rowing Club maintained their strong record of regional representation when seven of their Junior oarsman were selected to represent the Wessex Region and compete in the National Junior Inter-Regional’s Regatta at the National Water sports Centre, Nottingham, on Saturday (27th April).
The Championships is contested between the 11 British Rowing Regions, with the Thames region split into two (Thames Upper and Thames Lower) to make 12 teams in total.
High standard of racing
All events are raced over 1,500 metres with the heats timed and the fastest six crews going through to the Grande or “A” finale with the others into the Petite – “B” Final. A points system is applied determined by the results to establish which region are the national champions. The standard of racing is very high with a number of Junior Internationals and crews from the top public schools competing.
The Ryde athletes and support team travelled to Nottingham late on Friday afternoon staying locally before gathering at the National Water Sports Centre at 7.30am on the Saturday morning.
Junior 14s
The Ryde Club provided the J14 Boys Coxless Quad – consisting of Joel Smith, Jacob Redstone, Joe Groves, Matthew Jeacock and Coxswain Austin Smith and the J16 Boys double of Charlie Norman and Harvey Kirkby – with the two crews experiencing mixed results in their two events.
In their first race the J14 Coxed Quad battled well to finish third in the race and a chance of reaching the “A” final – but the other heat was marginally faster – the crew missing out by just four seconds. This tremendous effort took its toll and in their second race – the “B” final – they finished in tenth place.
Junior 16s
In contrast the J16 Boys double had a disappointing first race – finishing in sixth place – to take their place in the “B” final where they produced a much improved performance finishing second in this race.
The Ryde crews therefore contributed eight points to the Wessex Teams total of eight-eight points over all events which put the team in tenth place equalling last years improved performance and beating to other regions – a good result for the smallest of the regional teams.
Image: Ryde/Wessex Boys J14 Coxed Quad – in action at Nottingham – Austin Smith (Cox), Joel Smith, Jacob Redstone, Joe Groves, Matthew Jeacock (Stroke)
