The first weekend of half term saw some fifty plus GMSBC rowers competing at the National Schools Regatta up at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.
The event is usually divided into three separate days racing with Year 9s and 10s on the Friday – older crews over the weekend, with the top J18 (Sixth Form/Championship) crews racing over both days.
Sadly, due to very high winds forecast for Sunday, the third day was cancelled making for a somewhat curtailed regatta.
Friday
GMS rowers arrived around 8.30 am at Nottingham to find a perfect day with next to no wind and bright sunshine. The time trials all went well and results were pretty much a fair reflection of each crew’s performance. The crews are seeded into A,B, C and D finals based on their time trial results with anyone outside the top 24 no longer involved in the regatta. All our crews made it through to the side by side stage and it became a was now a question of how well they performed in the finals.
The Year 9 boys , who just missed out on a final at Junior Sculling Regatta, were very pleased to have made it through this time. They were supposedly second fastest from the time trial (TT) in their final and went out with a strategy to go one better. They had a strong start and made a determined push going into the half-way 500m mark. They were in first position with a quarter length lead over second place. Unfortunately, they caught a crab, which stopped the boat briefly and by the time they were up and running they had lost most of a length. Nothing daunted, they set to overhaul Peterborough in first place and over the next 250m closed significantly. The trend was definitely going in the right direction but, sadly, they ran out of track and had to settle for second, but a great race from these boys.
The Year 9 Girls’ Octo were part of a deep field comprised of 25 crews. For the Year 9s this is the Blue Riband event. With the lake being so busy, they weren’t able to properly warm up for their time trial, which resulted in them finishing a slightly disappointing 9th, putting them in the B final. Their day improved dramatically in their side by side race; they had a great start, and led the field by 3 seconds at the 500m mark. Eton Excelsior, in second place, mounted a strong challenge as they approached the finish, but the girls kept their composure, and rowed away with a strong cohesive rhythm to win their race by just under a length. This boat is full of talented, dedicated athletes, who have made great strides together, both in and out of the boat.
The Year 10 girls were in the A and B Quad Sculls events, with the A crew in their D final and the Bs in the B final. Like the Year 9s the A crew were a little disappointed in their ranking but went out to enjoy their final. It was a nail biter from the word go. Northwich went out fast and took an early lead of half to a length up by 500m. With a strong second 500m from GMS and Trentham, the lead had changed and GMS was now in second place. These two crews continued to move on in the third quarter and with 500m to go they both had clear water on third place and the crews were level. Momentum though was with the GMS girls and a really tough last 500m saw them cross the line a length up on Trentham in second place.
The B crew had performed really well to make the B final but this meant a tough race in the side by side in which they improved their ranking from 12th to 11th.
The Year 10 boys were both in Coxed Fours (sweep as opposed to sculling) but there was no “B” event so it was a tough ask for the second Four to make the side by side finals. As it was, they were second fastest qualifier for the D final and lined up looking forward to challenging for the top place in their race.
The boys attacked from the start and with 500m gone had half a length on second placed St Georges College. There was no looking back for the crew after this and with a big push at 750m they opened up a clear water lead and continued to move away from the rest of the field, winning their race by over 12 seconds from second place. Their time would have won the B final. A really exciting row from these boys and made them, and us, proud of their achievement.
The A crew had heavy expectations on their shoulders. GMS has won gold in this event for the last two years but this year a very strong Westminster Eight ( 4th in Championship Eights at the Schools Head) had decided to race as two Fours. In the time trial the GMS boat came in first with Brentford in second and Westminster in 3rd and 6th positions (some 9 seconds behind GMS) so all looked favourable, but by no means certain.
By this stage in the regatta there was a steady cross head wind, which while not ruining the lanes, gave a definite advantage to lane 6 in a more sheltered position.
The boys had a good start and looked to moving nicely but the slower Westminster crew from the TT in lane 6 had an even better start and at 500m led by a third of a length over GMS in second place. Again a strong second 500 from GMS saw them briefly draw level, but Westminster held on to regain their marginal advantage. With 500m left the Westminster crew in lane 6 had a half length lead over GMS and the stronger Westminster crew in lane 3 had closed to within half a length in third place.
While all crews were upping the rate and pushing hard for the finish line the distances were creeping narrower but the race track was running out. A really great race and a very well deserved Silver Medal in what was a top class field.
Saturday
As mentioned, an early decision not to race on Sunday meant a rescheduling of Saturdays racing with all events proceeding from time trial to finals. With A finals first then Bs etc.
The first of our crews to race was the top Girls’ Quad. Fortunately, we had decided to not race the Year 11s in their age group, as this event ended up being cancelled due to scheduling. This meant we could field a stronger top boat with two Year 11s in the crew.
They had a solid row and were a little disappointed to slip into the D final, but luckily a faster crew scratched, elevating them to C. In their side by side, the conditions were by now very tough and the lanes distinctly not even, so they did well to improve their ranking by one slot coming 5th in their race.
They were shortly followed by the top boys. The protracted time trial took over 20 minutes to complete the whole list meant that very varying conditions saw some very unusual candidates in the higher finals. Having had a good run into this regatta, we knew it would be tough to make the A final as there are about half a dozen crews of very comparable standard. It is a sign of the increasing standard of competition that there was only 3.6 seconds between racing in the A final and being in the C final. A disappointing outcome for this crew.
Next, was the Boys B J18 Quad and two Girls B Quads, with the boys coming 10th in their TT, the girls coming 3rd and 7th respectively.
A good by the Boys’ Quad saw them climb to 9th overall in the ranking, while the girls came 5th; the second boat had to scratch due to injury.
Last but not least, was the J16 Boys’ Coxed Four. They were defending their Gold medal from last year and came in second place in the TT behind a very strong Kew House crew 4.5 seconds ahead of them. They started well and followed the race plan, leading by a few feet a 500m. A tough second 500m saw Kew House take the lead. While this crew famously came back from over a length down to win gold last year, this was not going to happen as Kew House proved too strong. The GMS pacing could not be faulted though, as they managed to negative split every 500 (meaning they rowed faster throughout the race) with 1:55.42, 1:53.60, 1:51.64 and 1:51.38. Following on the heels of last year’s Gold, Silver was well earned and something to be very proud of.
A slightly frustrating regatta due to weather and some not quite optimal results, but another year coming home with major medals is continuing our upward trend.
