Fram pupils lead the way in Rowing Regatta's! - News - South Norfolk SSP

Fram pupils lead the way in Rowing Regatta's!

Norwich Rowing Club Juniors have had two National Class weekends of racing. Sunday 25th April was the date of the Junior GB trials at Dorney Lake and the Inter Regional Regatta. The coaches Nigel Kippin and Graham Sparkes travelled in two separate directions to support their crews.

The GB trials were to categorise the fastest National Juniors into a ranking before the final selection. From this athletes would get invited back to attend the final crew selection. To reach this stage Will Ives-Keeler (18years) and Harry Neale (17years) have had to undergo and pass three land ergo assessments and two long distance water trials. They both sculled well and moved up the ranking to 22nd and 21st respectively from their earlier season position in the thirties. They now wait for the National Coach to select the final trialist.

At the inter Regional Regatta where the country is split into 12 areas and each selects a team to represent and earn points towards a combined competition several Norwich Crews had been selected.

Sybren Hoogland and Adam Hughes raced in the Junior 16 double sculls to narrowly hold off a spirited attack by the Burton Trent crew to take gold medals. Mollie Appleton raced in the Women’s junior 15 single sculls and took a bronze medal after a boat stopping incident with her blade stopped her winning the event. She had been well placed through the heats dominating to set the fastest age group time.

Others from Norwich RC racing at the event and helping towards a overall 6th place for the Region were Hannah Ellis in WJ16 singles, Izzie Gibson and  Lucy Bracey in the WJ 14 double sculls, Steve Parsonage in J14 single sculls and a coxed quad of Jordan Read, Callum Postlethwaite, Andy Postlethwaite, Liam Young and coxed by Seb Conway. Holly Thomas partnered Ruth Taylor from Broxbourne RC managed to make the A final in the WJ15 double sculls.

On Sunday 2nd May 2010 the High Performance Juniors (those with National Aspirations) visited Wallingford Regatta one of the countries top Regatta’s. In testing conditions with gusting cross winds and driving rain for much of the day, it made racing very challenging for all the crews.

Mollie Appleton and Holly Thomas pushed through a fast Starting Sir William Borlas crew to take victory in the seven crew final. They raced up a year above their age egger to test themselves ahead of the National Schools Regatta at the end of the month.

A spirited Junior 18 quad of Will Moorhouse, James McKelvey, Harry Neale and Will Ives Keeler finished second by less than a boat length to the National Champions from Maidenhead. This was a good result against the top National boats and will bring them nearer to achieving aspirations of racing at Henley Royal Regatta.

Sybren Hoogland and Adam Hughes narrowly missed out on repeating the win in J16 doubles, against the opposition they beat by half a length the previous week. A close race where Hoogland and Hughes led at the first mark by several lengths found them sculled through in the subsequent second Half by the Burton Trent crew.

Hannah Ellis made the final after finishing 3rd in the heats against the top class women’s single scullers. She struggled to find the same form in the last race and finished in 6th place. Hannah teamed up with Holly Thomas, Mollie Appleton and Kim Wilkinson to finish 4th in the women’s junior 16 quad sculls.

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