Time Trials GMS/Borlase/RGS

On Saturday, the three local schools arranged a time trail event to test our crews against each other before we have our first external races in November.

Our senior boys’ squad was missing two top scullers due to illness, so GMS was concentrating on the singles races. In the First Division, Noah Grottrup came third beating a number of scullers planning to trial with GB this season.

Our senior girls raced in the 1st Division in Doubles. Erin Huddleston and Charlotte Greening were the fastest double, over 8 seconds ahead of the top Borlase double. Also, two of our Year 11 boats were the fastest in their category.

The Year 11 boys raced in Doubles in the First Division and in Quads for the Second Division. Although they were beaten by the Borlase crews, the results were very close and suggest we have gained quite a bit of experience and expertise since last summer, when the Borlase Crew medalled at National Schools.

Our Year 10 Boys’ Quad raced in a different Division to their main rivals and came in just 4 seconds behind: again they are clearly in the right ballpark for a good season ahead. Connor Quaan raced a Single in Division 1 and was over 1 minute 30s faster than his nearest rival, and beat a number of Year 13s.

In the Year 9 categories, the stand-out performance was from the Girls’ Quad, who overtook a number of crews: they had the highest percentage performance of any crew over the first half of the race. The percentages are worked out on expected speeds for gold medal crews in any given category. We expect to see an exciting season from this squad.

We race over half term at Upper Thames, then on 5th November, most of the squad will race at Henley Long Distance Sculls.