Wallingford Regatta
Sunday 3rd May 2009
The regatta is held on the six/seven lane 2000 metres course at Dorney Lake, the venue of the 2012 Olympic rowing. The weather was fine but a strong crosswind made the water choppy in the higher number lanes. We had five crews entered in this prestigious regatta, competing amongst some of the best crews in the country.
Two of the crews were juniors. Our WJ15A.4x+ crew was Laura Meadows, Hattie Neave, Lauren Williams, Alicia Green with cox Patrick Pollard, and our J18A.4x- consisted of Sam Thornton, Ben Marshall, Lyndon Cook and Dave Pollard. The senior crews were: Russell Thornton in IM2.1x; Ben Rodford, Dan Braun, Tim Barnett and Rich Woods in IM1.4-, and Toby Venn, Dave Pollard, Sam Thornton and Mike Lacey in IM1.4+
The WJ15A.4x+ crew began their day with an excellent row in their heat, to win it with a time of 7mins 52secs. In the final they again did very well to take fourth place with a time of 7mins 48secs.
Russell had a hard race in heat A of his IM2.1x event and came in fifth of the six contestants with a time of 7mins 55secs compared with the winner's time of 7mins 24secs.
Our crew racing in IM1.4+ should have been in IM3, but that category was full. However they put in a good performance and came sixth of the seven boats that were in the final. Our crew produced a time of 6mins 56secs to beat their local rivals Ross and they were just two seconds behind London who were in fifth place.
The regatta is held on the six/seven lane 2000 metres course at Dorney Lake, the venue of the 2012 Olympic rowing. The weather was fine but a strong crosswind made the water choppy in the higher number lanes. We had five crews entered in this prestigious regatta, competing amongst some of the best crews in the country.
Two of the crews were juniors. Our WJ15A.4x+ crew was Laura Meadows, Hattie Neave, Lauren Williams, Alicia Green with cox Patrick Pollard, and our J18A.4x- consisted of Sam Thornton, Ben Marshall, Lyndon Cook and Dave Pollard. The senior crews were: Russell Thornton in IM2.1x; Ben Rodford, Dan Braun, Tim Barnett and Rich Woods in IM1.4-, and Toby Venn, Dave Pollard, Sam Thornton and Mike Lacey in IM1.4+
The WJ15A.4x+ crew began their day with an excellent row in their heat, to win it with a time of 7mins 52secs. In the final they again did very well to take fourth place with a time of 7mins 48secs.
Russell had a hard race in heat A of his IM2.1x event and came in fifth of the six contestants with a time of 7mins 55secs compared with the winner's time of 7mins 24secs.
Our crew racing in IM1.4+ should have been in IM3, but that category was full. However they put in a good performance and came sixth of the seven boats that were in the final. Our crew produced a time of 6mins 56secs to beat their local rivals Ross and they were just two seconds behind London who were in fifth place.
Our IM1.4- crew also found they had tough competition in heat C of their event but secured fourth place out of the six entrants with a time of 6mins 36secs against the winner's time of 6mins 24secs.
All our crews had a good day's racing although they found it tough against the quality crews at Wallingford, but all gained good experience, particularly our juniors.