Great Marlow's rowers shine

Great Marlow school pupils came home with gold silver and bronze medals for the national junior indoor Championships in Battersea on Tuesday.

A total of 32 pupils took part and the J15 girls team took gold with silver medals for the J18 girls team, Elizabeth Gurney in the J18 girls event and a bronze for Alex Matthews in the J13 boys event The event attracted over 1000 of the best indoor rowers in the country.  

The Great Marlow team ranging from year seven to year 13 all performed to the highest standards, with 14 pupils finished in the top 20 in their events and 28 set new personal best scores.

Alex Matthews put in a stunning performance to get the bronze medal in the J13 boys event. Matthews smashed his personal best scoring 863m in three minutes and was just beaten by Callum Jones of Newark and James Davis from Colmers in Birmingham who smashed the national record in taking gold.

In the same event Joe Rockell put in a great performance to take eighth place in a new personnel best score of 818m. In the year seven events Sara Waterton, Channel Headley and Bradley Thorne all put in excellent début performances at such a big event.
 
In the year eight girls event Jess Sherlock was an excellent fifth and Emma Boddy 15th with three other girls coming in the top 30 out of 85 competitors.

In year nine Tom Hillsdon led the boys with 14th out of 111 racers. The year nine girls were in outstanding form with Aimee Benning fourth missing a medal by two meters and Charlotte Edwards Gayle an excellent 6th Natalie Child, Emily Rogers and Helena Jones all came in the top 25 out of over 70 competitors.

With year 10 missing the trip because of exams the year 11 all put in strong performances. Anna Humphrey was sixth, Georgina Turner 12th and Kiri Anne Smith 13th. In year 12 Rachel Finnis was 4th and in year 13 Elizabeth Gurney in her last event for the school took Silver. Elizabeth is a fantastic roll model for the younger athletes winning three gold medals, two silvers and two bronze medals at national level since she took up rowing in year eight.

The day finished with team relay races. In the boys sprint relay for years 10 and below, Great Marlow’s team of Tom Hillsdon Yr 9, Alex Matthews Yr 8, Joe Rockell Yr 8 and Scott Pimlott Yr 9 produced a fantastic result to come 5th out of 38 teams.

They covered the 2,000m distance in 6 min 33 seconds and the slickness of their changeovers kept them up with leaders all the way through. This is a team which will be back next year looking to win a medal.

In the Girls 2,000m event Jess Sherlock Yr 8, Charlotte Edwards Gayle Yr 9, Aimee Benning Yr 9 and Natalie Child Yr 9 stormed to the gold medal, retaining the title won by Great Marlow last year.

Their time of 7 min 9 sec saw them win gold by 10 seconds from Colmers and Putney High school. Again all four girls will be back next year hoping to repeat their win. Coach Sean Farrelly was particularly delighted that the schools B team came 5th and the C team 9th out of 36 teams.

The very young D team also finished a creditable 26th. With this kind of strength in depth coming through the lower school Great Marlow will be hoping to carry on its current run of success next year.

In the final event of the day the Beat Race relay for 6th form and upper school pupils Great Marlow just missed out on retaining their title. Led by Elizabeth Gurney with Rachel Finnis, Anna Humphrey, Georgina Turner and Kiri Anne Smith supported by Aimee Benning, Charlotte Edwards Gayle and Jess Sherlock. The girls raced over 6,750 meters the boat race distance changing every 200m.

The pace is high and this kind of racing is about maximising power and being very slick at change overs. With 2,000m gone it was neck and neck between Great Marlow, Bexhill College and a Nottingham/ Tees Rowing clubs composite team containing 4 national champions. Between 2 and 3000 gone Marlow pushed out to a slight lead with Bexhill chasing hard.

Going in to the last 1000m Bexhill began to tire but Nottingham with their two best athletes to come had too much power for Marlow and come through to win  in 23 min and 6 second with Marlow a mere 10 seconds back.