Rowers picked for England

A total of 12 Maidenhead Rowing Club athletes were selected to compete for England in Saturday’s Home International Regatta with the women’s junior double scullers coming home as gold medalists.

Sophie Delaney and Ally Brooks were competing in their last day of international racing at junior level and this experienced crew were expecting to be pushed by the crew from Ireland.

Moving quickly out of the blocks, they showed ahead and at 500m had a clear lead of two lengths over the chasing pack.

Drawing away with every stroke they crossed the line first to win the event nearly eight seconds ahead of Scotland who finished six seconds ahead of Wales with Ireland in fourth.

The men’s junior coxless four of George Poynter, Alex Ryde, Adam Lilley and Robert Ashburner had won gold at the national championships the week before by a close margin from the Welsh selected crew.

Going off the start, there was little between all four crews and in the first 500m Ireland and Wales both seemed to steer into the all-Maidenhead England crew.

After Ireland were forced to drop out, Scotland got ahead and won by 14 seconds from Wales and England a further three seconds behind.

In the junior women’s eight, the Maidenhead members Sophie Wedlake, Aimee Camp- bell, Aimee Broadbent, Sophie Delaney, Alice Ancora, Francesca Lovely, Ally Brooks (stroke) and Zoe Broadbent (cox) plus Alicia Parker from Rob Roy did exceptionally well to finish second.

England blasted out of the blocks and at the first 500m mark they were a few feet down on Ireland with Scotland and Wales a length behind.

During the 500m to 1,000m mark, England took the lead, however racing neck and neck to the finish line England were just caught in the last 100m and had to settle for second just two seconds behind Ireland.

Former Maidenhead junior squad members also at the regatta included Laurian Pepper, competing for Scotland, who won women’s lightweight coxless pairs; Louise Entwistle who won both the women’s coxless fours and the eights events for England; and David Jones, competing for Wales, who was runner-up in the single sculls.