Mr Wells (Director of Rowing)
On Saturday 25th November, we had ten enthusiastic crews taking part at the Hampton Small Boats Head, very high standard event attracting all of the top junior athletes.
Following a predominantly off water programme this small boats regatta was a nice break to the heavy training the girls have been doing over the last few weeks. It has been a challenging phase for the girls as they have been trying to improve on their own individual targets.
This term we have concentrated on mixing the crews to ensure that we are getting individual development with a focus on distance per stroke. Hampton was our last race this term and this has given the girls an opportunity to really take a physical risk to push themselves further than before.
The Year 10 girls were competing in quads against a very strong field of nearly 40 boats. The Year 11 and Sixth Form girls were all competing in pairs.
The race was held over 3000m in a processional time trial with the fastest times posted being the winners.
This race I have one strong nomination for Senior girl of the Match, Bella Trobe (Year 11) who has been exceptional not only in her performance but her club spirit. At the last three head races she has worked so hard behind the scenes even when not competing. She has been an exceptional role model to all the girls especially to the lucky year 10 boat who she stepped in to cox at very short notice today.
Junior Girl of the Match goes to Ruby Webb (Year 10) who has constantly shown improvement in a very mature and confident manner. The whole coaching team have been really impressed with the way Ruby has taken the challenge of stroking her boat, which she was very daunted by at the start of last week. Ruby has taken on the mantra this term of taking a risk.
Although I have only mentioned two girls, the whole squad has risen to the challenges set this term and I have been so impressed with the way they have taken this on.
The next race is the British Indoor Championships on Saturday 9th December, which has been affectionately renamed by the girls as BRIC. This will be an indoor event held in the 2012 Olympic Velodrome.
