STRATFORD-upon-Avon Boat Club’s young scullers took part in the inaugural Junior Fours Head on the Tideway between Chiswick and Putney.
The club’s junior crews spent months training for the prestigious event which included numerous early starts.
Races took place over the championship course against some of the strongest schools and club crews from across the country.
Stratford fielded two J18 crews with the mixed coxless quadruple scull of Martha Baines, Xavier Sissins-Roffey, Seth Vondrak and Maeve Dunn first down the course.
And the crew rowed strongly to achieve a seventh-place finish.
Stratford’s women’s J18 coxless quadruple scull of Martha Cooke, Alexandra Francis, Tessa Parkin and Poppy Baines also took to the water and crossed the line in 35th place.
In the OJ16 4+ event, Stratford’s five J16 performance squad boys of Seb Happel (stroke), Will Shaw, Euan Richter, Rory Rowan (bow) and Ed Appleton rowed over the 6.8km course.
The crew averaged a split time of one minute 40 seconds as the Stratford team missed out on silverware but gained valuable experience nonetheless.
Stratford’s J16 coach, Hugo Happel said: “A great experience for the boys on this most special of waterways in relatively mild, if wet, conditions.
“The key take-out was to rate slightly higher next time.
“All in all, an amazing learning experience and fantastic to connect the dots between training on our river Avon and the Tideway requirements.”
Club president, Paul Stanton added: “Not only was this a great performance by the athletes but credit should also go to the coaches, helpers and supporters for getting the athletes to this dominant position and for towing the boats from Stratford to The Tideway and back again during Storm Claudia.”
