Silver Medal Winners

Great Marlow Girls won Silver. As term finished for most students, the rowers headed to Nottingham for the British Junior Championships, on 16^th – 18^th July. Given the considerable disruption caused by Covid and enforced isolations, it was a tribute to the students that five of the seven crews, who entered, actually raced.

Thanks are also due to two girls, and their families, who came in at the eleventh hour to make things work. Ocean Dove and Emilia Deering both stepped up to the plate on Thursday 15^th to complete the squad for Friday’s racing. GMSBC started the championships with two Year 10 quads racing on Friday 16^th. Sadly, Will Clayton, woke feeling quite poorly and by race time was not in a condition to row. Tests were done and, fortunately, Covid did not seem to be the problem, which meant the rest of the squad could continue to race. The boys must be applauded for their stoic reaction to the devastating news of not being able to race. They are a very talented group, that rightly had high hopes for these championships, yet they took their disappointment with great maturity, and I foresee they will yet shock their competitors in the coming years.

Meanwhile the girls’ quad, started their day with a solid time trial coming comfortably within the top twelve and so progressing to the semi-finals. Given the isolation of Peyton Nugent, we had to reshuffle the order, putting Olivia Fyfe at stroke and Ocean Dove at bow. The girls looked very settled in this new order and rowed very well in their semi-final to make it all the way through to the A-Final.

There were two crews, Henley and William Perkins, who looked certain to medal. Hoping to have learnt from the semis, where ground was lost in the middle of the race, only to come back in spades in the last 500m, (suggesting 5^th or 6^th in the final), the aim was to push harder in the second 500m and not give the opposition any early gains. As usual, the girls started well; at 500m gone, Henley was moving out but GMS was just behind Perkins and in a good position.

The race developed over the next 500m to the halfway mark, with the two top crews gradually increasing their lead on the pack. Approaching the 1000m mark (halfway) there was perhaps 1/3 of a length from 3^rd to 6^th. Pressure on the GMS crew was significant, and on this occasion, they were not quite able to pull off a reversal of the semis results.

Saturday brought the Year 11 events with a double of Noah Grottrupp and Tom Wiles for the boys, and a Coxed Four for the girls.

Tom and Noah had a very good time trial, but just missed out on the semi-finals ( 13^th instead of 12^th). These two students have trained immensely hard throughout this year, but have had limited time in their Double, as Tom has spent much of this term training in crew boats with older years.

Also, the WJ16 4+ of Erin Huddleston, Christina Baxter, Emily Downing, Robyn Pendlbury, coxed by Anna Bradley, which formed in time for Marlow town regatta, were more in sync, and turned a defeat at Marlow Regatta into a well-earned victory, but still not quite fast enough to qualify. Over the last week or so they have really come together and learnt to harness the considerable power within the crew. The time trial, first thing in the morning, was going to be a real test of this new cohesion. The girls looked impressive throughout, with long powerful strokes and an efficient smooth rhythm.

One thing was clear straight away, the MRC crew ahead of them and the Weybridge crew behind them in the time trial were not going to pose many problems later in the day. When the results of the TT were announced, we were not surprised to hear the old rivals Henley RC named first, but ecstatic when GMS came second. A clear 4 seconds ahead of the next rival. The question was could we close the gap on Henley. Crews who had beaten them three weeks earlier at Women’s Henley were left trailing.

As the girls went out for the final they must have been nervous. Their coach and the rest of the squad, only had one question. What colour medal it would be? But ‘nothing is certain until the lady sings’ as they say. As they have done before, the GMS girls attacked this race and within 500m there were only two crews in contention for number one. Over the next 500m both crews settled into a strong rhythm and maintained close contact. A push from Great Marlow around 800m saw the girls move against the Henley crew but little by little the experienced Henley girls edged ahead. In the end, Henley were clear winners but the GMS girls had destroyed the rest of the field and beaten a number of crews who had previously beaten them. There is no doubt there is a great deal still to come from these girls, but a fantastic silver medal.

Sunday saw our sixth form squad competing. Having chosen to row/sweep for the first half of term into National Schools Regatta ( Girls 4^th and Boys  5^th respectively), both crews have been playing catch up on the sculling front. The boys have also suffered from various illnesses and isolation so, given 6 seconds from 8^th to 20^th in the boys quads the question was could we continue the climb up the rankings ahead of the all-important Henley Royal Regatta in mid-August.

First off was the Girls’ Quad, who have maintained enormous discipline in their training including staying healthy and away from risk. As is their style, they attacked the time trial and were determined to leave nothing out there. Twelfth position gave them a starting place theywere very happy with in the semis. The boys had a good row, but were perhaps a little too relaxed in the middle of the race and just missed the semis. However, they had closed substantially on the leaders and with another three weeks till HRR there is everything to go for.

Twelfth in the TT meant perhaps some strategic thinking of the progress through the day. In their semi-final, there were three crews clearly making their way through to the A-Final: at 800m gone there were a few feet between GMS, Borlase, and Claire’s Court. GMS crew settled down and rowed a comfortable race from there on, conserving energy for the final. The final was a dominant display by the leading three crews, but their coach’s attention was on the ‘battle royal’ going on for 5^th and 6^th position. The GMS crew went out for a race and were clear they wanted the opposition to know it.

With 1000m gone in this titanic struggle, Mr Murison was not sure if a few gaskets were not about to blow. The GMS crew knew only one rate which was full bore 38 strokes a minute, without considering the consequences. A truly aggressive and fearless race for a great crew earned them 11^th overall.

It was a great weekend for all the squad and the Year 11 Girls’ Four ( with Year 10s and a sixth form cox) were truly exceptional.