Rowing News March 2023

Wycliffe Big Head
The club made its first ever trip across to this race on a beautiful stretch of still water in Gloucestershire. Our Senior 4x and 8+ enjoyed the challenge of two long races in the day, with some good results and significant learnings to take home, back into a patch of solid training and testing ahead of the March major heads.

Results

  • Women’s Senior 8+ – 2nd
  • Women’s Senior 4x – 2nd
  • WJ18 8+ – 2nd
  • WJ18 4x – 3rd

Hampton Head
On the same day, our junior rowers stayed local, competing at Hampton Head. It was a first public event for our J14s, who dealt well with the presence of more boats than they’d ever seen before! There were promising performances across their three octos, as well as a range of J15 boats. 4th place in our first J15 sweep race was a satisfying result from the eight, with the highlight of the day being another win for our J15 quad in a field of 32 crews.

Results

  • WJ15 4x+ – 1st, 17th, 19th
  • WJ15 8+ – 4th
  • WJ14 8x+ – 8th, 15th, 17th

Rachel Brown Boat Naming
Our Boat Club family gathered in early February, for a boat naming ceremony in memory of Rachel Brown, former Captain of Boats at SWPSBC who sadly passed away in 2020. Current and former pupils, parents and staff were moved by Mrs Brown’s words, and we are honoured that our 1st Quad will now carry Rachel’s name.

GB Rowing Team Senior & U23 Trials
Another fantastic experience for our Captain of Boats, Anna, at February’s GBRT Senior & U23 Trials. The GB Senior World Championship squad was out in force, and we were so proud to have one of our schoolgirls competing in the same race.

30th Openweight Woman, 12th U23 OW and 7th U21 OW is another great result from an 18 year-old, and means Anna can be confident about exactly what to expect in her U23 and Senior rowing years post-SWPSBC.

Alumnae Rowing Successes
In mid-February, within 24 hours of each other ‘21 and ‘22 SWPSBC alumnae sisters, Tess and Mary, won medals on opposite sides of the world! Tess’ University of Nottingham crew won the Bronze Medal in Women’s Championship Lightweight Fours at BUCS Head in Newcastle, while Mary’s Melbourne University crew continued their recent success, winning Gold and Silver Medals in the U21 Women’s Eight at the New South Wales Rowing Championships and Nagambie Regatta, Australia.

Burway Head
A busy half-term of trials, fixtures, crew-testing and training came to an end with our junior squads racing at Burway Head in late February. It was fantastic to see our J14s and 15s in competition on our home stretch, with the highlight being Emily’s victory in Junior Women’s Singles, also registering the fastest Overall Women’s Singles time of the day. Our J15s took this J18 category by storm, with 5 of the top 10 coming from SWPS! Emily’s performance also saw her win the inaugural Tom Barras Trophy, presented by the man himself, Tokyo Olympic Silver Medallist in the Men’s Quad, who learned to row at Burway RC.

Results

  • WJ18 1x – 1st (Emily N), 3rd, 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th
  • WJ15 4x+ – 2nd, 3rd, 5th
  • WJ14 4x+ – 3rd, 4th, 5th
  • WJ14 8x+ – 1st, 2nd

Women’s Eights Head Of The River
An exciting day on the Tideway for our 1st and 2nd Eights in early March, at the biggest single-day showcase of women’s rowing in the world! Over 2500 female athletes were on the water simultaneously, and we are proud to have had 18 out there in SWPS colours. Our 1st 8+ (Lottie H, Maddie M, Annabelle T, Anna C, Addy P, Emily N, Evie S, Jess W, Naina B) achieved the Club’s highest ever position at WEHORR, finishing 7th overall in Junior Eights, 3rd fastest School crew, and 46th overall. The 2nd 8+ came in a very encouraging 104th overall in a huge field of 320 adult and junior crews, completing a fantastic day out for the J15-18 rowers we had in action.

Thames Upriver Regional Trials
It was a fun morning of racing in small boats for three of our J16s in mid-March, as they trialled for places on the Thames Upriver Team, which will compete at the British Rowing Junior Inter-Regional Regatta in April. Competition in our region is very tough, but we were delighted with the showings of our crews, with Alice W just missing out in a top-two re-row for the Single Scull spot. Huge congratulations go to Annabelle T and Maddie M, who have been selected for the second year in a row in the Double Scull! We look forward to seeing them in action at the JIRR, representing both SWPSBC and the region, in Nottingham on 22nd April.

Schools Head Of The River
A second trip to the Tideway this March saw the country’s top junior oarsmen and women convening on the famous stretch between Chiswick and Putney. Our J15-18s were out in force with some very positive results – our Senior Squad racing to third place in the Girls’ School 1st Eights, as well as sixth place in Girls’ Championship Quads. The J15 Squad enjoyed their first national race in a sweep boat, finishing 7th in J15 Championship Eights.

Results

  • Girls’ Champ 4x – 6th, 34th
  • Girls’ School 1st 8+ – 3rd
  • Girls’ J15 Champ 8+ – 7th

National Junior Sculling Head
An amazing spectacle at Dorney Lake saw just under 3000 juniors from all around the UK do battle at the final head race of the season, with promising results from all across our Club. The highlights were a string of fourth places in WJ17 Quad, WJ15 Quad and WJ14 Octuple – particularly impressive from our Y9s in their first national race! A third place in the WJ17 B Quad event was also a good sign from rowers who had just jumped across from their longer-term eights project. Encouraging signs, but motivation all round to work hard to upgrade finish positions as we move through the end of term, an exciting training camp, and then push into Summer regatta season.

Results

  • WJ18 4x – 8th
  • WJ17 4x – 4th
  • WJ17 B 4x – 3rd
  • WJ15 4x+ – 4th
  • WJ15 B 4x+ – 16th 
  • WJ15 8x+ – 8th
  • WJ14 8x+ – 4th
  • WJ14 8x+ – 6th