THE senior men’s coxed four made up of Mike Ewing, James Padmore, Roger Ewing, Nick Halford and cox Theo Millward, from Henley’s Thames Cup finalist crew, won a magnificent silver medal at the National Championships.
They pressed eventual winners, Leander all the way in the final, taking the lead with 150 metres to go. Leander’s final surge, however, gave them victory by the smallest of margins. In the process HRC had the satisfaction of beating a four from Molesey BC’s winning Thames Cup eight, as well as Britannia winners Agecroft and Tideway Scullers, amongst the six boat final.
In the women’s double sculls Bethan Thomas and Rachel Willis once again showed they are the country’s best club double by taking the silver medal behind the Leander double containing Olympic medallist Debbie Flood. As with the men’s four they led the race up to the last 100 metres where Leander’s extra strength took them to a narrow lead to the finish in the strong headwind. Bethan’s and Rachel’s reward, however, was selection for the England team at next week’s Home International match.
Other successes for the senior team included a silver medal for the men’s lightweight pair of Tom Cannon and Robbie McGow, a bronze medal for Dorian Weber in the men’s lightweight single and a bronze medal in the lightweight quad sculls.
Daisy Colsell and Gemma Hall competed in women’s junior double sculls and the senior event of women’s U23 double sculls, reaching the final of both events. In the U23 final, by 750 metres the girls had taken the lead and at the 1,000 metre mark led the field by a length, but in a strong headwind the older double from Bath University pulled through to win in a photo finish by 0.09secs to leave the Henley girls with silver. This race had taken a lot out of the Henley girls and in the junior event for which they where favourites they trailed Nottingham BC for most of the race and going into the last 500 metres, whilst well clear of the rest of the field, where still four seconds behind the leaders. A fantastic push through the last 500 saw them close this gap and they finished just one second behind Nottingham, winning a second silver medal.
Pippa Whittaker following her selection for the GB junior squad raced in a senior women’s composite quad and senior women’s composite eight with other members of the junior squad. In the quad Pippa won silver, and in the eight which she stroked, won gold.
Henley RC’s junior squad also had a most successful regatta. The J16 coxed four of Vassilis Ragoussis, Will Sadler, Nick Gordon and Jack Chapman, coxed by Sian Ralph had a perfect row in the final, drawing away from all the opposition to finish first and win the gold medal and the plaque as club champions. In J16 quad sculls Jamie Copus, Guy Whitaker, Will Taverner and Alex Spink, qualified for the final and had a magnificent scull to finish third to win the bronze medal.
The J16 quad also raced as a coxless four and after a poor start they still managed to find the energy to row through the field from behind into silver medal position. The gold medal was won by a composite crew, so Henley was awarded the shield for club champions
The final of the girls junior 15 quads saw Henley renew their rivalry with Midlands club Trentham. Henley had beaten Trentham at the National Sculling Head back in March but had then lost to them at the Inter Regional Championships, so this was to be the decider. Also in the final were Tideway Scullers, bronze medallists at the National Schools regatta, Maidenhead, Evesham and Lady Eleanor Holles School. Over the first 500 metres, Henley pushed hard to gain a slender three quarter length lead over Trentham, and this was the way the crews remained over the remainder of the course until in the last 250m, when Henley moved out to a full length’s lead and crossed the line in gold medal position. The rest of the field had been left over 15 seconds behind so congratulations go to the 2009 national champions Emily Barrett, Hannah Douglas, Jo Unsworth, Georgia Roberts and cox Christy Stephens.
The J14 coxed quad scull of Harry Chapman, Jack Roe, James Mills and Ben Lock, with Tom Stockdale as cox, raced in a time trial early on Friday morning, qualifying for the semi final but were then unable to progress to the final.
In the WJ14 event the A crew of Jenny Norman, Millie Marsh, Molly Thorp, Maddy WynnJones, and Didi Horsburgh-Wade made it through the heats and qualified for the final. Here, it was a battle for the medals between three crews with Trentham taking gold, Henley the silver and a composite from Inverness, the bronze. Meanwhile the B crew of Izzy Pratt, Emma Saleh, Holly Hancock, Sadie Maunder and Ben Brooks as cox after a titanic gutsy row just fell just short of qualification by 0.7 second.
Henley RC member, Tom Hope won the men’s J17 single sculls event. Having won both his quarter and semi-final races he managed the strong head wind very well and opened a commanding lead by the half way stage. Towards the end he was pushed for a time by the second place sculler from Glasgow Schools Rowing Association with the rest of the field a long way behind. Having crossed the line Tom celebratrated in his usual unique style, this time taking both hands off his oars to pump the air in Tour de France cycling style. He needs more practice at this because he promptly capsized and fell in!
Unfortunately, the WJ16 quad of Jessica Gough, Becci Norman, Charlotte Mills and Amy Fitzgibbon had a torrid time. Having caught two crabs in their opening heat they were determined to get to the final via the repecharge only to fall victim to another crab which put paid to their attempt.
Racing in both the WJ quad and coxless Fours event, Florence Lock, Lizzie Blair, Abbie Stephens and Connie Rowell (rowing in Eton Excelsior colours) started well by winning their heat of the quads in very rough conditions, but did not do so well in the fours, reaching the repecharge but scratching from this event to concentrate on the final of the quads. In the final they sculled well and put in a very courageous performance but were overpowered by the other crews. One consolation is that they still have another year at this level.
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Published on 27 July 2009
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