STRATFORD Boat Club’s junior crews performed exceptionally well at the West Midlands trials held at Worcester on Sunday.
The winning crews in each event have been selected to represent the West Midlands at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham on April 22.
Stratford’s first gold was won by Joe Hodson in the J15 single sculling event. Despite being swamped by a safety launch rushing to the rescue of another sculler before the start, he steered an excellent course and took advantage of the strong current to win by four seconds.
Jess Wiesheu and Katie Wellstead also claimed silver in a very competitive WJ15 2x event, losing out to Ross by just 11 seconds.
The WJ14 coxed quad won a bronze medal, only nine seconds off the winning time, as Alice Baines, Nixie Brunt, Mya Kenny and Jasmine Mountney were coxed by Naomi Sergeant in her first competition.
The J13 squad entered two quads competing in their first event and they finished second and third only 15 seconds apart after ten-and-a-half minutes and 2,500 metres of highly committed sculling.
Stratford’s second gold of the day was won in emphatic style by Emily Browne in the WJ15 1x event as she beat strong opposition from Ross by16 seconds.
Fred Tyler and Max Griffiths won silver in the J14 2x event.
Isobel Marsden, Eleanor Gray, Lara Davies and Madeline Winsper won gold in the women’s coxless four event as they beat King’s School, Worcester by 27 seconds on their own water – a fine achievement in such a fast current.
The WJ15 coxed quad of Katie Wellstead, Jess Wiesheu, Emily Browne, Gracie Mitchell and coxswain Matilda Watts came within inches of gold, only to be beaten by 0.2 of a second by Shrewsbury.
This was a fantastic performance in a very competitive event of ten crews, particularly for Matilda in her first event.
Katie Phillips, Khloe Curnock, Molly-Gill Swift, Autumn Keil and Hermione Hill took revenge by beating Shrewsbury by nine seconds in the WJ15 coxed four to win Stratford’s fourth gold medal.
Dan Cox finished the day by winning silver in the J14 1x event.
Junior co-ordinator Steve Wellstead said: “Stratford’s medal haul was ten which was more than any other club at the event.
“With four winning crews from Stratford going forward to represent the West Midlands at the Junior Inter-Regional Regatta in April, Stratford juniors are looking in good form for the coming regatta season.”
