Miss Gowing (Senior Rowing Coach)
It was a bright windy morning on Sunday morning (13th January 2019), when an intrepid group of Year 9 rowers took to the water for their first British Rowing affiliated race. The girls were racing on their home water here in Bedford, over a distance of 1200 m as a processional time trial.
Boating with steely determination into a vicious head wind, three BGS crews set off. Last term we were very lucky with the training conditions and so the girls were not used to the ways in which the wind can affect the river. The girls have done a lot of work on establishing a good rhythm in the boat, creating ratio between the drive and the recovery. When rowing with winds, this ratio can be difficult to maintain, but all crews did well to stick to their training. It also makes it much more difficult for the coxes, who will find the boats drifting constantly and tricky to turn.
BGS entered two coxed quads in the WJ14.4x+ category, placing third and fifth in their event. Both crews approached the racing with good attitudes, and have learnt a lot about how head racing works: from the importance of staying focused throughout the race, to bringing enough layers for all the waiting around that is involved!
Unfortunately, the BGS Octo faced no other entries in their category, so had no other crews to compare their time to. Nethertheless, the girls did not allow this to dull their competitiveness and attacked the race with a brilliant attitude, showing a great cohesiveness down the entire course. This was in part down to their cox, Saffy Oakley-Holton, who steered an excellent line down the course, and dealt well with the conditions. For these feats, she was awarded Girl of the Match.
