St Neots Rowing Club Juniors perform well

The top juniors at St Neots Rowing Club took part in the Eastern Regional Trials on Sunday 4th March at Peterborough.  Conditions were very wet and cold and began with a time trial in singles for Adam Williams and Nick Shorten in the J16 category and Fergus Mitchell and Rory Tynan in the J15. The trial consisted of two timed legs of 1000m and all the boys performed well, sculling strongly in the difficult conditions.  Fergus took top spot in the J15 boys and is hopeful that he will be selected for this event in the inter-regionals at Nottingham’s National Water Sports Centre in April.

The boys teamed up with their partners to scull in double boats in the afternoon, with the J15 combination of Mitchell and Tynan coming third in their event 11 seconds off the pace. The J16 double of Williams and Shorten did even better and registered a 2nd place behind a very fast double from Kings Ely. We wait to hear whether their performance is good enough to be selected for the eastern regional team.

In the same trials, the J14 girls dominated their age group in the singles event, taking the four top places. Louise Shorten took 1st  place in fine style demonstrating how length of stroke and strong rhythm made for a fast boat.  Lauren Parren, Hannah Bousefield and Olivia Hooper took 2nd  3rd and 4th place respectively. The girls then moved into a quad boat coxed by Dannielle Lewell and competently raced the course, overtaking two crews and posting the fastest time of the day in their age group by a huge margin of 1min 7sec. This was even fast enough for them to lead the WJ15 age group.  All four girls and their cox are expecting their place in the eastern region team to be confirmed. 

Their coach Helen Knowles commented:

 ‘These juniors have shown what can be achieved by hard work and commitment to training over the winter. I am very pleased and encouraged by these results showing them to be amongst the best in the Eastern Region.  I am looking forward to a successful summer racing season.’

The next important event will be the National Schools Sculling Head which is held at Dorney Rowing Lake on March 19th , the venue to be used for the 2012 Olympics.  

Junior Sculling Head

A larger group of juniors competed at this event run by Champion of the Thames Rowing Club in Cambridge on Saturday 10th March. For many of the group this was their first competition on the River Cam. The youngest of the group, Shaun Parren raced with Jamie Lynn in a J13 double and both boys worked hard to achieve a very creditable 2nd place out of 6 in their event and will be a crew to watch in the future.

The three J15 boys of Fergus Mitchell, Rory Tynan and Giovanni Chinnici acquitted themselves well in their singles event taking 1st , 3rd and 5th places respectively, out of a field of 9. Tynan and Mitchell then swept the field in their double event and also took the prize for their steering on the tricky bends of the Cam. Chinnici teamed up with Tom Dakins in a J16 double, recording 5th place in a field of 8. Dakins is a relative newcomer to the sport so this was a valuable experience for him.

Alex McCurrach competed in a J18 single event but struggled to find good pace in what is a relatively new event for him. However when teamed up with Kyle Morrison in a double they posted a competent 2nd place, just 6 seconds behind the winners.

The girls J14 quad of Louise Shorten, Lauren Parren, Hannah Bousefield and Olivia Hooper posted the fastest WJ14 time some 22 seconds ahead of their nearest rival and also won the WJ15 event by a similar margin, competing above their age group. Their coach felt they needed a challenge in preparation for their next event.