Individual Performances NJIRC

On Friday 28th Feb, forty Great Marlow rowers  went  to the Copper Box Arena in the Olympic park in east London to compete at the National Junior Rowing. Championships (NJIRC).

The venue was heaving with young people, all  looking to perform at their best and show the  world what they were capable of.

The morning was  dedicated to individual performances by age category. Each age group raced in groups of 30 rowers per race, and their

progress was displayed on a huge screen  so supporters could cheer them on, knowing exactly where they stood in their race. The numbers of rowers was immense, each age group had up to 9 of these races ( 270 competitors), so the rowers were not only racing their cohort but they were then ranked across all the races.

The Year 7 rowers were on first with four of the girls coming in the top 12 in their race, and the boys had two 6th places. Particularly strong performances

from  Isabel Ryan (36th overall) , Connor Quann (28th overall) and Haashim Ahmed (32nd overall).

In the Year 8 categories, all ten the rowers came in the top twelve in their races, with a star performance from Poppy Spence who won her race convincingly and earned 6th place overall.

In the next race , three GMS girls were lined up against each other and had a very impressive  struggle for supremacy. Abigail Forgenie, having had a slow start, rowed through Emily Hughes and Millie Duncan  to pip them in the last 5 seconds of the race. The girls ended 6th, 7th and 8th  in their race separated by 3 meters. For the boys, Leo Chapman, stood out, coming 3rd in his race and 21st overall.

The last individual races of the morning were the Year 9s. For the boys Will Clayton and Sal Dunn had good performances coming 8th and 9th in their respective races. For the girls, Emily Downing , Bronze Medalist in the December Championships, was drawn in the same race as the Gold and Silver medalists from that same ;championships. Emily rowed an extremely disciplined and mature race and resisted chasing the silver medalist who took off at a blistering pace. Sure enough in the last minute, Emily rowed through her rival earning 2nd place in a very tough race, but importantly Silver overall . Tia Briggs was in the same race and put in an outstanding performance to come 6th,  gaining her 18th overall. Both  Peyton Nugent and Christina Baxter came second in their respective races. Four rowers in the top twenty overall looked very encouraging for the team event.