Bobmore Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 1JE
Telephone - 01628 483 752
Company Registration No.07690054

Rowing 2019/2020

Great Marlow School Boat Club, in the year from 2019/20 began with a promise of experiencing tremendous success, most especially in the senior squad: the fleet was ripe for expansion and the boat club embarked on raising funds to enable this. Thanks to enormous generosity, GMSBC were able to upgrade and extend their fleet to match the requirements of the strengthening squad.

Sadly, despite being able to purchase all the equipment, the weather and then the virus meant the club were not able to put it to good use straight away. However, the club is now well positioned to move forward having some top quality boats for the crews to compete in, as and when racing resumes.

The very wet and windy weather in January and February 2020 saw a number of races cancelled although the races took place in Gloucester where 4 events were won, and second in another 6.

While there was frustration that racing on the water was removed, there were a number of Indoor Championships and Virtual Regattas. These are events where the rowers compete on Concept 2 rowing machines, which effectively measure power and fitness, if not necessarily skill and ability in the boat. The first of these was the British Rowing Indoor Championships in early December where we won two Gold medals and three Bronze medals.

Golds were won in the Year 11 Adaptive Rowing, where PJ O’Donovan maintained his record in both events. In the Year 11, Leo Simpson and James Robson pushed each other hard, with Leo just claiming the Bronze over James in fourth place. In the girls’ competition, Emily Downing in Year 9 managed Bronze in both the 500m sprint and the 4 minute time piece.

The next event was the National Junior Championships. The highlight of this event was our Year 9 Girls’ Four. All four members of the team were in the top twenty in the individual event, with Emily securing Silver. With such a good result in the individuals it was no surprise that the crew established an early lead and dominated their race from start to finish taking Gold by some 15 seconds.

There were a few other Virtual Regattas where our athletes competed successfully, but the finale was a virtual British Championships in early July. Emily Downing, having trained consistently throughout lockdown showed tremendous form: it was fantastic to watch her competing online in both the 500m sprint and the 4 minute challenge. Emily went one better again than February and achieved Gold medal in both.

The 2020 season was not one that most rowers will remember fondly but for GMSBC there were certainly some Silver and Golden linings. Thank you to everyone who supported the club in such an amazing way. There will be more updates about our crews performing on the water very soon.

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