National Schools Regatta
This year Leeds Rowing Club took it’s largest ever entry to the National Schools Regatta, the premier junior rowing regatta in the country.
With juniors racing from J14 to Championship over 12 events, the depth of our entry was one of the largest from a junior club programme.
Sadly the weather decided to take matters into it’s own hands and only two of the three days of racing took place. The racing which took place though was our most successful ever.
Day One saw a fantastic performance from the J14 boys coxed quad, coming 3rd out of 42 crews in the time trial, leading to a thrilling A final where the boys rowed through in the final 500m to take the bronze medal.
The J14 girls oct had a strong time trial performance heading into the B final, where it was a fiercely contested event where the girls moved up the gears from 6th to 4th place, missing out on 3rd place by less than 0.5 of a second.
Our J15 girls four had a dramatic A final where the girls chased down the leading pack trading blows with Barn Elms in the last 500m. Sadly this year we were inched out of the medals coming in 4th.
Day Two saw some pretty grim conditions but the crews racing battled through. Liv had a cracker of a time trial and came 7th just missing out on the A final. The B final conditions were challenging, with Liv coming 2nd in the B final - 8th overall nationally and faster than all of the scullers in the A final.
The Champ 4x defied the odds in a stacked event and made it through the time trial to qualify for the D final. In the hardest lane as the conditions worsened they had their work cut out for them and they came 6th in the D final.
The J15 eight have had a great season and they proved their mettle by surprising many of the top school rowing programmes, coming 4th in the time trial and into the A final. The changing weather conditions meant they ended up in a challenging position, but the boys held their nerve to finish 5th in the A Final. An amazing achievement!
The J16 Boys 4+ was one of those races where you could feel the whole club daring to dream for the J16’s. Absolutely nothing in it for the first 1k between the top 4 crews but the curse of 4th in the A Final struck again. Absolute club legends.
Finally the 2nd 4x qualified for the C Final and turned on the style in their final.
Much to the surprise (again) of the commentators, Leeds led from start to finish, maintaining and then extending their lead in the last 500m (despite what the commentators thought). A huge well done to the 2nd 4x for finishing day two with a win!
Finally… commiserations to the Champ 2x and Champ Girls 2x crews and to the Girls J16 4x and Girls 2nd J16 4x crews who were meant to be racing tomorrow. Sadly racing was cancelled for Day Three due to the weather forecast which is a real shame for everyone who was due to race tomorrow.
While the weather has left us a bit bittersweet about this years Nat Schools, the achievements of the juniors who raced has once again raised the bar!
4 x A Final including a Bronze medal
2 x B Finals
1 x C Final
1 x D Final
We surpassed last years performance just on two days of racing which was immense!
Lastly. A huge thank you to all of the junior athletes and parents for your hard work. Helping to put the club (and the most impressive gazebo and flag set up) on the rowing map.
A special thanks go to Rob and all of the coaches for their hard work in guiding the programme to what it is. You’ve earned your beers!