Golden Weekend for GMSBC

The Junior Inter-Regional Regatta, the first of the three National events of the regatta season, happened last weekend. GMS has picked up several medals over recent years at this event.

On Saturday Connor Quann as a Year 11 Single Sculler, rowed; so did Kayla Shilito, Natasha Pendlebury, Bea Spence, Lucy Platt and Isabel Berger as a Year 10 Girls’ Coxed Quad.

First up was Connor in his single scull and, while he has not had much time to train in a single, his power and stamina showed through and earned a very impressive Silver Medal: a great achievement.

The Girls’ Quad, who had dominated in both the long-distance scullery back in March, as well as the selection trials for this event, had high expectations and while slightly disappointed with their time trial still came top by 3 seconds.

In the final, over a longer course of 1500m, they dominated throughout and came home some 8 seconds ahead of their nearest rival. A very dominant performance and well-deserved Gold Medal.

On Sunday, Ethan Hunt took part in the GB small boats trials and while he had been selected for the Spring Assessments a few weeks ago, he had felt disappointed in his performance there. Determined to improve his ranking, he performed really well in the time trial placing him 8^th and in the A/B semi-final group. Poor conditions and unfair lanes meant a rough ride in the semis placing him in the B final, but by 5:15 pm the wind had become a light steady straight tail and fair to all. By halfway at 1000m, Ethan was in 4^th place about four seconds off 1st m but a truly impressive display of hard sculling moved him through the field over the second half, gradually hauling the leaders in: a final push saw him win his final, 1 second ahead of the next competitor, and with the remaining four scullers less than 3 seconds behind.

A truly great result and certainly pushes him up the rankings and in a good position to go for GB selection later this summer.