Regatta Winners

The girls crews raced first at 2:30 pm, shortly after lunch, with a packed enclosure eagerly awaiting an epic battle. In the front row of hospitality pitches were two big camps right beside each other; one for Borlase under their school boat club gazebo, and one hosted by Great Marlow Governor Simon Money. Previous form suggested Borlase might have a slight advantage having performed slightly better on their previous two meetings. However, the GMS girls had made significant improvements in training and were in fighting form as they lined up for the start.

Both crews began well, with nothing between them for the first 150m or so, but then the improvements the GMS girls had made in terms of rhythm and cohesion started to show. Stroke by stroke the Shining Red GMS Eight pulled into the lead, first a canvass, then half a length, and by half way GMS lead by 1 length. The Borlase Eight started to struggle, finding themselves unexpectedly off the pace, and with that GMS continued to pull away. By the time the crews reached the enclosure there was very clearly one camp that was shouting and cheering louder, and GMS girls crossed the finish line comfortable winners by several lengths.

Expectations for the boys’ race at 3:30 pm were a little more one sided. The GMS Eight had already established itself as one of the top school Eights around and, while both camps gathered to cheer home their crews, the previous result and current form of the GMS Boys’ Eight, made our camp a significantly noisier group. As the crews rounded the bend up by the church, still some 500m from the enclosures it was clear to see that the red Hudson Eight on the Buckingham station already had a substantial lead. The crew looked relaxed, powerful, and were rowing in unison looking every inch the top class Eight they are, winning this race by a comfortable margin.

While these two races were of great excitement to the GMS supporters, they were by no means our only successes of the day. The GMS squad had a bumper day with 16 crews making finals and10 crews picking up medals for winning their event. The previous record, Mr Murison believes, was 6 wins, so this was, undoubtedly, our best regatta to date.

GMS are extremely proud of all our rowers and their performances. We are delighted to list all the winners below.

Open Eights-Boys J18 8+ Oliver P, Oliver EB, Jamie JW, Josh M, Ale H, Toby L, Blaise ID, Jake C. Cox-Eddie A

WJ18 4+ – Alice A, Olivia L, Devon DW, Chloe G. Cox-Hugo S

J14 8x – James R, Mac J, Hugo L, Aidan K, Alastair S, Henry G, Leo S, Oscar F. Cox -Frankie WP

J14 4x+ – James R, Hugo L, Aidan K, Alastair S. Cox-Henry G

Adaptive 1x-  Matt S

Adaptive 2x- Matt + Aidan Kelly

J13 4x+ – Freddie P, Oliver J, Tom Wiles, Frankie WP. Cox-Henry G

J13 8x – Freddie P, Oliver J, Tom W, Frankie WP, Noah G, Sam C, Louis D, Jamie L. Cox Hugo S

GMS -Girls’ Eights- Hannah C, Jessie Mc, Olivia H-B, Millie W, Amelia J, Ruth R, Lottie M, Anna B. Cox-Nitya

GMS Boys’ Eight – Oliver P, Oliver EB, Jamie JW, Josh M, Alex Hardy, Toby L, Thomas R, Jake C. Cox-Eddie A