Twenty Juniors from Durham ARC endured some very challenging conditions on the lake at Strathclyde Park near Motherwell for the 3-day British Rowing Junior Championships held between July 14th and 16th and performed exceedingly well to return with 3 medals and 13 appearances in finals from their 15 entries.
In a break with tradition the Championships had one of its occasional moves away from the usual home at Nottingham and introduced some organizational changes to streamline efficiency.
To ease travel arrangements for competitors and coaches all events were scheduled for completion within a single day. Given that this would preclude doubling up on the same day, events were assigned to different days in such a way as to ensure that those in which doubling up was expected took place on adjacent days.
To maximise the number of side-by-side races time trials were required only for events with 14 or more entries, being over 900 metres for J14/15 events and 1900 metres for J16/18 events, with finals over 1000 or 2000 metres.
Friday
Racing got underway on Friday with DARC’s Tom Pfetscher and Finley Scott among 13 entries starting in the second race of the day in the eliminator for the J18 pair. A 5th place finish in 8.24.4 saw them through to the afternoon repechage where 3rd place in 8.23.4 put them into the B final to take 8th place overall.
Quinn Mosley then achieved an excellent 3rd place out of the 39 entries in the time trial for the J14 2x which qualified him for the semi-final. However, a problem with the timing system led to races for the event being redrawn and additional heats required, with Quinn winning heat 5 in a time of 4.21.52 to give him the bronze medal.
Quinn Mosley J14 1x bronze medallist (Photo by AllMarkOne)
Sophie Hancill was among 65 entries for the most heavily subscribed event of all, the J15 girls single sculls, and unfortunately a 40th place in the time trial wasn’t sufficient to qualify for the finals.
Patrick Lakey partnered Owen Marshall of Tyne ARC in a composite J15 2x in which 33rd place in the time trial took them into the E final where they took 4th place in 4.15.2.
In the WJ16 2x time trial Louisa Scott and Grace Beattie achieved 21st place from 40 entries in 8.58.1 to reach the D final where they were 3rd in 9.11.82.
Ninth place of 18 entries in the last time trial of the day in 7.45.6 took Tilly Stoddart, Orlagh Windle, Jenny Napora and Libby Morris into the semi-final of the WJ18 4x- in which 5th place put them into the B final where they finished 3rd in 8.00.56.
Saturday
DARC had an interest in five events on Saturday. In her first event of the weekend Izzy Maddison was 21st of 43 entries in the J14 girls 1x time trial in 4.47.9 and went into the D final where she finished in 4th place in 6.14.72. Also in the event were entries from Eleanor Wesencraft-Colledge who won the B final, and Jasmine Kane who was 4th in the C final, both now representing Lambton Rowing Club who were taking part in their first Championships.
Sophie Hancill and Rebecca Burns were 34th of the 63 entries in the J15 girls 2x time trial in 4.28.7 to go into the E final where they were 8th in 5.39.5.
Quinn Mosley started his bid for a second medal in a composite J14 2x with Alex Lowes of Lambton RC. Second place of the 29 entries in 3.47.2 qualified them for the second semi-final which they won in 4.19.78, taking them into the A final where 4.37.6 saw them slip to 5th place overall.
A second entry in the J14 2x from Harrison Glasper and Jason Wrack placed 15th in the time trial in 4.10.1 and went into the C final where they were 3rd in 4.37.1.
Luke Davison and James Bruce were next to start, among 38 entries in the J18 2x where 24th in the time trial in 8.19.2 saw them through to the D final which they won in 8.20.8.
Sunday
By Sunday with conditions deteriorating further and the wind direction having changed so that competitors now had a tail wind with which to contend, organizers took the step of reducing the programme by cutting out semi-finals, reordering the schedule and moving the course for the 1000 metre races in search of calmer water.
The final day was to bring two further medal successes from DARC’s four entries.
First into action were Amelie Jones and Izzy Maddison in the J14 girls 2x where 22nd place from 41 entries in 4.02.2 took them into the D final in which they were 4th. In the same event Jasmine Kane and Eleanor Wesencraft-Colledge of Lambton RC were 3rd in 3.42.5 and went into the A final where they won a bronze medal.
Luke Davison was one of DARC’s two entries in the J18 1x, but 31st place in the time trial in 7.58.7 missed qualification for the finals by less than a second in an event with 54 entries. In the same event 3rd place for Sam Terry in 7.24.5 took him straight into the A final and a bronze medal in 7.46.22.
Sam Terry J18 1x bronze medallist (Photo by AllMarkOne)
The second medal of the day and best result of the weekend went to Jonny Cleugh (pictured top) who was one of 58 entries in the J15 1x, this time a silver after recording 3.24.5 in the time trial and second place to Trentham Boat Club in the A final.
All scullers did exceptionally well to handle the conditions, with some having their first experience of racing on a multi-lane course. Indeed the Championships attracted an abundance of entries from small boats but relatively few from eights with only 3 entries for Open J18 8+ and 5 for Women’s J18 8+.
Performances for DARC included appearances in –
- 4 A finals (including 1 silver and 2 bronze medals),
- 2 B finals,
- 1 C final,
- 4 D finals
- 2 E finals.
Medal winners were –
- Jonny Cleugh in J15 1x – silver
- Quinn Mosley in J14 1x – bronze
- Sam Terry in J18 1x – bronze
Results of all races are available here.
Photos from AllMarkOne are here.
Perhaps because of its relative proximity to the venue the Championships had a very large entry from the Northern Region. Statistics for entries from Northern clubs have been compiled by regional Junior co-ordinator Pauline Higgins and are on the Northern Rowing Council website.