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For the firth year running SRA/Trentham Boat Club attended the British Indoor Rowing Championships held at the NIA. A little earlier than in previous years so less time to prepare and get people involved. But we still managed to fill a 57 seated coach with children who wanted to take part. Some new to the experience others you would say are like veterans with some on their 4th time.
It was a fantastic day with non-stop racing from 9am-5pm with plenty of things to do in the competitor’s area like shops and games to keep us all occupied.
Our racing started at 11.30am which gave us plenty of time to get prepared after arriving and then we didn’t stop racing until 4.30pm phew. We had children taking part in almost every event starting off from year 7 J12 category they had to race for 2 minutes trying to get as many meters as possible. Year 8, 3mins and so on until year 11 where they have to race the full distance of 2,000meters. We had children involved in team events to. This was a team of 4 all rowing together over a certain distance Year 7s 500m each, Year 9s 750m and Year 10 & 11 1,000m.
As a group we had some amazing performances mainly all getting a personal best. Picking up a total of 21 medals in the team events and breaking championship records. Poppy Emery achieved a forth place out of 68 participants and only 4 meters off 1st place. Lee Harrison 5thplace out of 79 only 3meters off Bronze position.
Gold and championship record Girls J14 event: Nicole Stevenson, Emily Butler, Eleanor Thomas, Becky Dell
Gold Boys J14: Matthew Fair, Joe Anderson, Tom Hall, Paddy Brookes
Silver Girls J15: Tammy Bloor, Charlotte Mycock, Laura Cruxton, Lucy Cruxton
Silver Girls J12: Carrie Lanceley, Jodie Tipper, Natalie Nixon, Francisca Ponce
Silver Boys J12: Ben Evans, Ryan Dennis, Dan Meakin, Ryan Harrison
Lee Harrison joined forces with 3 other lads around the country who called themselves the oarsome foursome quite fitting really as they grabbed another team gold to go with the 1 they claimed last year.
With a total of 49 juniors racing this was a fantastic display of team work. Three schools took part this year; Trentham High School, St. Peters High and St. Josephs College.
Thanks for all the help from Alan Renoylds, Gemma Lovatt and Sarah Butler who all helped throughout the day getting children through the warm up and being with them in the holding bay.
Next indoor Rowing event will be the English Championships held at The National Valedrome centre in Manchester on the 8th February. Fingers crossed for another great days of racing.
Report by Darren Barton