Racing is held over 3 days with all classes of competition rowing 2000 metres. Events for the 14 to 16 year old rowers are held over the first 2 days with the heats/repechages/semi finals being held on Friday and the finals on Saturday with the older crews racing in similar knock out fashion on Saturday and Sunday.
During racing the weather was mainly dry with the occasional heavy shower and a strong cross/tailwind with intermittent stong gusts which ruffled the surface water and on occasions produced white horses.
The WJ14 girls quad of Ruby Cooper Ella Seabury Ruby Fletcher Caitlin Sutherland and Bradley Ralph as cox rowing in the boat kindly loaned to them by St Edwards School Oxford won friday's heat outright by a margin of over 4 seconds which meant that they qualified direct for the final on Saturday afternoon.
After a mid morning outing on the lake the girls felt confident going into the final which they proceeded to dominate from the early stages rowing away from City of Bristol and Eton Excelsior who finished second and third respectively to secure a well deserved gold medal by a winning margin of just under 5 seconds a result reflecting their season's dedication ability and strength.
The WJ15 quad of Abegail Roels, Molly Thorp, Kate Tillotson, Maddie Wynn Jones and Didi Horsburg Wade (cox) finished a highly successful season in style by winning gold at these British Rowing Championships after qualifying straight to the final in their heat. The battle against their old adversaries , Trentham was tight until the last 500 metres when the Henley girls pulled away to finish 4.5 seconds ahead, commenting after the race they said there was no way they would let Trentham take gold.
At WJ18 level Lizzie Blair, Jessica Gough, Charlotte Mills and Imogen Mansfield reached the finals in two events the WJ18 coxless quads and also the WJ18 Coxless fours. The girls fancied their chances of a medal in the coxless fours event after qualifying well but they were unable to reach the podium in that final but exceeded their expectations in the quad by winning a bronze medal. So two finals, one medal, a good days rowing.
Florence Lock and Abbie Stephens competed in the J18 girls double sculls. This proved to be one of the most competitive events with a number of GB potential candidates involved or ex GB representatives competing. Florence and Abbie progressed to the final via the repacharge which they won with considerable style and compliments from the commentary. In the final where the three medal places where taken by crews involving the said GB candidates the girls sculled exceptionally well and delivered all that was asked by their coaches and whilst they held the bronze medal position for a significant part of the race they were unable to hold off the selected welsh boat and finished in fourth place.
Gemma Hall who has been selected to represent Great Britain at this year’s Coupe de la Jeunesse (effectively the Junior European Championships) won Henley’s fourth gold medal competing in a composite crew in Women’s Quad. The girls won their heat very easily and looked to be repeating this in the final when with 200 metres to go the three girl caught her blades in the water brining the boat to a complete halt, the girls showed great composure to restart from the stopped position but by this time had been closed down by Sir William Borlase and only went on to win by a third of a length. Gemma will also be representing Wales this weekend at the Home International Regatta in both Junior Quads and Double Sculls before travelling to Hazewinkle for the Coupe.
Alice White competing in her first major event in single sculls took the silver medal in girls under 14 single sculls. In some very harsh conditions in Fridays heat Alice showed considerable skill and determination in winning her heat. In Saturdays final the Norwich girl got off to a flying start which she built on over the 1st thousand metres but after this “the fly and burn” tactic start to tell and Alice was gradually pulling her back but just ran out of distance and had to settle for silver in only her second single scull race and also after overcoming injuries during the year which had limited her training.
In OL1X Paul Hamblett won Gold after a "steady" start which saw him among the back markers early in the race he went on to a good win.
