St Neots Junior Rowers perform well at Peterborough J14 Regatta

St Neots Rowing Club Juniors were in action at the Peterborough J14 regatta held on the multi lane course on Saturday 23rd June. This is an event for 12, 13 and 14 year olds raced over 1000 metres. This young group were faced with challenging conditions as a result of a strong tail wind.

The first group of races were for Hannah Bousefield, Louise Shorten and Olivia Hooper in their single races. In the first round Hannah was unfortunate to be swamped by the wash from one of the launches, but with her usual gritty determination she got back into the boat to carry on racing. However with some extra water in the boat she raced well and only missed out on progressing to the next round by less than 2 seconds.  Louise raced well in her heat and progressed to the semi-final with the fastest time of all the 18 scullers racing in that first round. Olivia was racing her first significant race in a single and surprised herself (but not her coaches) by winning the heat and progressing to the semi-final.  With confidence high both Olivia and Louise raced well in semi-finals to make it through to the final – with two out of the four places in the final St Neots were assured of at least one medal. The final saw Olivia and Louise sculling strongly, especially considering this was their fourth race of the day  - but their training paid off. After a good start both girls settled into their race rhythm with Louise taking and holding a second place to win the silver medal. Olivia and her rival from Headington School battled for the bronze for most of the course but Olivia was unable to sustain her power pushes for long enough and had to settle for fourth place.

Two of the younger boys, Jamie Lynn and Shaun Parren, competed in the J13 age group in their double. They went off the start well in their heat and kept in contention throughout the race. They needed to be in the first two places to progress to the final but lost out by a small margin in the last half of the race. Their coach commented that this was a good learning experience for both these young athletes, and with more training and experience we can expect to see success in the future from them.

Lastly and by no means least was the WJ14 coxed quad with Lauren Parren making up the quartet with Louise, Olivia and Hannah and ably coxed by Ellie Sadler. They knew that their heat was the strongest of the two containing crews that had performed well in events earlier in the year, so the race plan was to race hard to ensure that they secured a place in the final, which they duly did. In the final they were neck and neck with arch rivals from Headington School in the neighbouring lane and by the halfway mark they were starting to creep ahead. A big push at the halfway mark saw this lead extending and with the support of the crowd in the last quarter they were able to extend the lead to clear water for an emphatic win. An overheard comment from one of the other parents was ‘ I didn’t know St Neots were that fast ’.

Coach Helen Knowles said that she ‘was extremely pleased with the youngsters’ performances in quite challenging conditions, and are clearly making themselves known amongst the competition.’ 

St Neots Rowing Club is gearing up for its Regatta over the weekend of 21 and 22 July, where these young competitors will be showing their prowess, supported by their home crowd.  For more details of the regatta please email info@stneotsrc.co.uk