A couple of weeks ago, on the 23rd of September, a total of 20 Lea juniors raced at Wallingford, for the Long Distance Sculls over a distance of 5.4km. With many of racing twice in the day and with 3 of the 5 victories being our second race of the day our fitness levels held up. For some, this was their first rowing head race ever, and for others it marked the start of their 3rd season at the club. What united all rowers however was that no Lea junior had ever raced at Wallingford before the 23rd, which meant that we were all curious as to how the course would be.
The 20 of us raced over all 3 divisions, and many of us came out victorious in our respective categories. A special mention should go to the J16 double of Mieszko and Ioan, who won in the J16 2x in what was their first ever race together. Also, the J18 4x of Abie, Elliot, Seb, and Daniel clocked a time of 15 minutes and 10 seconds, an average split of 1:47/500m, making them the fastest crew across the whole competition and against more than 500 boats competing. The girl’s J18 quad sculled really well and was a close second in their race to the talented Henley crew. Madoc and Roman were a new combination and did well to be competing for top spot coming second to Pangbourne. I came second out of 44 entrants in my single losing to the fastest junior sculler in the country last year, so I was pleased with that. Jess topped the WJ16 singles finishing first out of 44 entrants. Ines and Hetty in the WJ18 double finished first out 18 entrants. Vincent over the short course being J15 was a class apart in his single finishing well ahead of the competition. We had the company of one senior athlete Ryan who finished second in his single. A big well done to everyone, as it was the perfect start to the season.
October is a race-free month for the juniors, but on the 5th of November some of us will be racing on the Tideway at Fours’ Head, followed by Hampton Small Boats Head on the 25th of November.
The full results are listed below:
1st place:
J15 1x: Vincent;
WJ16 1x: Jess
J16 2x: Mieszko and Ioan;
WJ18 2x: Hetty and Ines;
J18 4x: Abie, Elliot Watson, Seb, and Daniel; (Fastest boat)
2nd place:
J18 1x: Elliot Watson
J18 2x: Madoc and Roman;
WJ18 4x: BB, Jess, Ines, and Hetty;
4th place: WJ18 2x: Liv and Sara ; WJ18 1x: BB
5th place: J18 2x: Abie and Toby
6th place: J18 2x: Elliot Marsden and Arty; WJ18 2x: Mary and Lolly
9th place: WJ18 2x: Lottie and Marie
10th place: WJ17 1x: Olivia D-W
13th place: WJ16 1x: Alice
15th place: J18 1x: Daniel
22nd place: J18 1x: Seb
By Elliot Watson, Lea Rowing Club