On Saturday 5th May six members of the J15-Senior Girls squads travelled to Dorney Lake to race at the Junior Sculling Regatta. The day began with time trials over 1750m which would determine whether crews would race in side-by-side finals over 2000m later on in the day.
The WJ17 2x of Maisie Cruickshank and Imi Shaw posted a good time which saw them into the B final and less than a second off qualifying for the A final. The WJ15 2x of Scarlett Udy and Olivia Holdcroft also found themselves in the middle of the field and comfortably into the B final. The WJ18 2x of Anna Herrmann and Lottie Coventry had a less composed time trial than they had hoped, still qualifying for the B final and determined to prove themselves in the side-by-side racing.
The finals were all very closely fought. The WJ18 2x had a much more composed race this time and were pleased to overturn a crew that had beaten them in the time trial, finishing third in their race and 9th overall. The WJ17 2x raced well in a very close field and were just pushed into 4th place on the line by a powerful crew from The American School in London. The WJ15 2x found the pressures of side-by-side racing tough, finishing 5th in their final and determined to put this experience to good use in upcoming races.
All crews learnt a lot from the experience, which was for the majority of the squad a first opportunity to race more than one other crew side-by-side. They will be looking to learn from this experience going into Bedford Regatta this weekend and National Schools Regatta on the 25th-27th May. Well done all!
