Silver at National Schools Regatta

Celebration erupted at the finish post as the GMS Year 10 girls took Silver at National Schools Regatta. The J15G Coxed Four: Amy Pyle, Laura Cook, Pippa Young, Rachel Pearce, with cox Georgina Agar were hopeful that they could do well; this year they have won a number of regattas and heads. The final was a three way tussle between GMS, Headington School, and Maidenhead Rowing Club. Headington, probably the top girls rowing school, while slower in the semis, were always likely to turn up the heat for the final. Sure enough, they took the lead for the first 500m but both the GMS and Maidenhead crews gradually overhauled them and these two crews battled hard against each other for the two top slots.

The Girls’ Ist Four, namely Fran Reynolds, Georgina Smyth, Lizzie Harper, Leanna Beswick and cox Lottie Hughes had a fantastic and courageous race in the semi-finals. They had a poor start and were in last position 250m into the race but, finding a long smooth rhythm, they started to move through the opposition and with 500m to go they had overtaken two of the other crews and were neck and neck with the third place crew. In that last two minutes, both crews threw everything into gaining that crucial qualifying slot and GMS won by 2 feet.

In the final, the girls got off to a much stronger start and were in the leading pack after 500m, but possibly the intense battle in the semis had taken too much out of their legs and they were unable to hold onto the top three over the second half of the course.

The clubs third finalists were the very strong Year 10 Boys’ Eight.  Having won the Schools Head back in March as a J15 1^st Eight, they stepped up a level to compete in Championship Eights at National Schools. Making the final was going to be tough with Eton, Radley, and Hampton also in their semi-final. The crew got off to a shaky start and quite quickly were in last position, which was not where they expected to be. But, showing great maturity for such a young crew they settled down and rowed as they knew they could. At 500m a quarter of the race gone, they were in fifth, nearly 2 lengths off the leaders Hampton. Relentlessly driving their legs down, unlike their opposition who were fading, they moved back through the field as, first Abingdon, then Eton fell behind them. In the last 250m (just 45 secs) they drew level with Radley, and Hamptons two length lead was down to one third of a length. The three boats crossed the line, in a nail-biting finish with just 1 second  between all three of them.

The final was another close and hard fought battle with GMS in the medal pack for most of the race, but having to come back so hard in the semis meant in the final push Westminster who had an easy ride in the other semi-final took Bronze.

Amongst the rest of the club, both Year 9 Octoples made their semi-finals on Friday, which was excellent. In the small boats, Dan Magnussen in 1x, Leanna Beswick and Hannah Brown in 2-, Will Cunningham and Mohan Bains in 2-, and again Dan and James Wheal in Championship 2-, all made their semi-finals and raced well.