Rowing Pair win Championship Medal

Jessie McAuley and Chloe Gosnell, both in Year 10, raced in the Girls Championship J16 pairs at National Schools Regatta at the weekend.  While being a year younger than their rivals and definitely on the petite side for rowers, they showed their class from the first race.

Lining up for the final, they were definitely expecting a tough race, but knew they had a realistic chance of a medal. By half way at 1000m, they were in fourth place, only ¾ of a length behind the leaders and a few feet behind 2nd  and 3rd, with the remainder of the field falling a little behind. Having already pushed to close up on the leading three, the girls found extra pace and moved steadily ahead; with just 500m to go it looked like they could take gold. The final dash for the line saw the older Kinston crew push back hard. It was a nail biting last 10 strokes; a medal was certain for the GMS pair, but the colour still completely open. At the finishing line it was bronze for these two young rowers: a great achievement.

Great Marlow School Boat Club performed well over the rest of the regatta, too, with 7 other crews making finals. There were notable performances from the two Senior Eights. Both Eights were racing against the top J18 (Year 13 crews) from the best squads in the country and with only one Year 13 in each crew were always going to struggle to medal. The boys came 7th in their event and the girls 9th. However, there was a silver lining for the Girls Eight in just missing the A final; in the B final they were lined up next to Borlase and all of a sudden medals were irrelevant, the local derby was the only thing that mattered.  At halfway (1000m) the first four crews were level, a photo would have been needed to determine who was in front. The GMS Eight then attacked , raising the rate to 39 strokes a minute they edged ahead of the field with only Glasgow Rowing Academy ( Scottish Junior Squad) coming with them . By 1500m they had one third of a length on Borlase and half a length over St Pauls, but had clearly been over rating their competition. In the sprint for the line as all crews pushed harder, and the GMS girls, far from tiring from their high rate, continued to move ahead of the local rivals.  No medal but a very happy Eight.