Henley juniors triumph at Wallingford sculling head

HENLEY Rowing Club juniors picked up wins at last Saturday’s Wallingford Long Distance Sculls, one of the first autumn heads of the season.

This is one of the more challenging local heads raced over a 4,000-metre course with some testing bends early in the race. Raced over three divisions the first and third divisions being the full course and the second division being a shorter 2,500m. Henley had 36 single scullers and 10 crew boats out of nearly 550 crews entered across the three divisions.

In Division 1 the girls’ J18 quad of Abbie Smith, Gwennie Hunter, Tabby Hall and Freya Weiser took first place as did the the J16 quads of Tilly McKenzie Smith, Charlotte Tong, Chloe Hughes and Jemima Butterworth. The J15 quads of Ella Butler, Lauren Pollard, Sophie Floyd, Scarlett Sissons and cox Emily Schutz also triumphed as well as picking up a second place.

In the women’s double sculls, Emily Simmonds and Emma Eltze finished fifth but the four boats in front included three top Leander boats.

Whilst no wins came from the single scullers, Tabby Hall and Abbie Smith finished second and third respectively in WJ18 age group.

In the WJ17, the top placed sculler was Freya Smith in 13th place while in WJ16 Chloe Hughes finished seventh.

In Division 2 the Henley WJ15 quad of Ada Mercade, Martha Hart, Roxanna Schoenmakers, Freya Kriefman and cox Emily Schutz finished second behind Wallingford.