STRATFORD-upon-Avon Boat Club’s junior squad travelled south to the spiritual home of rowing, Henley on Thames, to compete in the annual Long Distance Sculls event.
Contested over 3km on Henley Reach, the event attracted top clubs and schools from around the country.
Stream levels were higher than usual, favouring those who steered the canny course close to the bank.
The Stratford J16 squad competed twice in both J16 and J18 events.
The WJ16 double scull of Martha Baines and Poppy Warren delivered a solid row to record fifth place, Tessa Parkin and Josephine Cooper achieved eighth and Sophie Franklin and Becca Smith came home tenth.
The WJ16 single scull athletes of Poppy Warren, Tessa Parkin and Becca Smith achieved seventh, ninth and tenth respectively.
Rowing up to the J18 category, the J16 athletes delivered strong second rows on the Henley course with single scullers Maeve Dunn, Martha Cooke, Isla Dunn and Millie Smith achieving creditable placings of 14th, 17th, 18th and 21s respectively.
In the J18 double sculls, Martha Baines and Maeve Dunn ranked 11th, Millie Smith and Martha Cooke ranked 16th and the crew of Josephine Cooper and Isla Dunn coming home 20th after being obstructed by a slower crew for the final 500m of the course,
With the usual first races of the season cancelled, the J17/18 squad turned up at Henley excited at the prospect of some racing.
With fine conditions but still some strong stream to contend with, the first Stratford crew of the day consisted of Aimee Appleton, Lucy Sartain, Lily Warren and Poppy Baines racing in the WJ18 quads. After a blistering start, the quad stormed to sixth place.
The J17/18 double of Jamie Wilcock and Seth Vondrak, racing for the first time together, sculled well and fought hard to overtake a crew in the final stretch to secure 11th place.
V Vondrak and Scarlett Richardson also secured a very respectable third place in the WJ18 2x event. They rowed a good length and rhythm, overtaking one crew in the first 1,500m pushed all the way to the end.
Finally, racing a year up in the J18 1x, Xavier Sissins-Roffey got a quick start and fought hard all the way to finish 40th out of 55 in a competitive field.
J17/18 coach Eric Appleton said: “This was the first chance to race for many of the squad in over the last three months so it was good to get out and put all the hard training into practice on such a famous stretch of river.
“We’re very happy with the performances and looking forward to the next race.”
