STRATFORD-upon-Avon Boat Club’s junior squad closed out the national competition season with success at the British Rowing Junior National Championships at Strathclyde in Scotland.
The club fielded 17 crews across the J14 to J18 age range with the J14 coxed quadruple scull of Bryony Francis, Maeve Dunn, Martha Baines, Sophie Franklin and Isla Dunn (coxswain) first on the water.
A solid time trial performance secured the crew a place in the semi-final before then racing in the B final where they led from the front to take a dominant win with a confident row to finish seventh overall.
The following day, the J14 single scull event saw Maeve Dunn and Martha Cooke place 20th and 27th respectively after their time trials and finals against quality opposition in a howling headwind.
In the WJ14 double scull event, three Stratford crews took to the water with Martha Baines and Sophie Franklin, Millie Smith and Isla Dunn and Poppy Warren and Martha Cooke all in action.
Baines and Franklin excelled in their time trial to qualify for the A final while Warren and Cooke and Smith and Dunn secured spots in the D and E finals respectively.
And Baines and Franklin dealt with a heavy tailwind in the final to finish a superb sixth on the national stage with Warren and Cooke third in the D final and Smith and Dunn victorious in the E final.
Stratford’s J15 squad were also in action at Strathclyde Country Park, home to the only 200m multi-lane course in Scotland.
Firstly, Alexandra Francis and Poppy Baines took on the single sculls event following a long delay at the start and overcame tough conditions to qualify for the C and D finals respectively as the former finished second in her final and the latter was sixth.
And Baines and Francis then came together to race in the double sculls event where they qualified for the D final and finished just behind Queen Elizabeth High School in a thrilling race.
Also competing in the double sculls were Lily Warren and Sophie Evans who narrowly missed out on a place in the finals despite a fantastic row.
Debuting In the single sculls event, Seth Vondrak was unable to qualify for the finals in extremely tricky conditions.
The W16 2x double of V Vondrak and Aimee Appleton finished 15th in their time trial before securing second place in the C final with Lucy Sartain and Ez Elfwood 25th and fourth in their D final race.
Stratford’s W16 4x were 10th in their time trial to qualify for the B final and pipped local rivals Stourport on the line to finish fifth.
Additionally, four members of Stratford’s J18 squad took to the water as Will Beattie, Tomi Wilcock, Charles Happel and Toby Sartain competed in the OJ18 coxless quads event.
The Stratford squad were eighth in round one which saw them enter a second round repêchage where they placed third to qualify for the B final.
And the quad came home in fourth place in the final as they missed out on a top-three finish by less than a second.
Beattie and Wilcock then competed together in the OJ18 doubles event and placed 21st out of 37 crews in the first round time trial before attacking the subsequent D final to come home second.
