Stand Out Performances at the British Rowing Open Trials
Sophia Heath and Lettie Cabot were the top performers in the W2- at the Open Trials at Caversham yesterday afternoon. Racing was moved due to an unpredictable forecast to the Saturday after being initially scheduled for both days over the weekend. After setting the pace in the time trial earlier in the day, Heath and Cabot were in contention with the rest of the field until halfway, but eventually went on to win the trial with a dominant display.
The Men’s squad had several positive results from members of both the Olympic Pathway and Student Programmes. Henry Blois-Brooke and Quentin Antognelli claimed 2nd position with Michael Glover and Oscar Lindsay in 3rd place in the A Final. Other notable mentions should go to impressive performances in the B Final by Jack Prior, Tom Shewell and Cameron Spurling and Phil Nesom.
In another promising performance, Isy Hawes, partnered by Amelia Standing a member of OUWBC rowed through the field to win the B Final. This ranked them as one of the best ranked U23 pairs of the day. Beth Dutton was ranked 5th U23 W1x after placing 3rd in the B Final. Miles Devereux in his first race for Oxford Brookes won the B Final of the M1x to be ranked as 4th U23 on the final results sheet. There were other debut performances by Jake Wincomb, Louis Nares and Ben Hinves, partnered by Jamie Axon who gained valuable experience of the trials process.
In other news, there were excellent displays from Brookes athletes representing Great Britain at the World Cup Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland. Rory Gibbs and his crew won in a phenomenal display of power and speed in the M4-. Joshua Bugajski and Morgan Bolding won Gold over the Germans by 0.03 seconds in a thrilling race. Matt Tarrant and Oli Wilkes racing in the M2- placed in a very respectable 4th position.
This is a true testament to the excellent training all the Brookes athletes have done in a heavily affected season. With a first taste of side-by-side racing for many, we now turn our attention to the build up toward more multi lane racing at the Metropolitan Regatta on the 5th and 6th of June.