While medals were hard to come by at the 2017 British Rowing Junior Championships last weekend, five crews formed from Rob Roy Boat Club’s Junior Squad made it into the top 12 crews in the country in their categories. Fifteen-year-old Brett Taylor won a bronze medal in the J15 single sculls – just a week after flying back from Taiwan where he trialled for a place at the 2017 Asian Youth Olympic Games Qualification Regatta.
Alongside Brett, five boys, all from Chesterton Community College, who were complete novices in September, and were introduced to rowing through the Try Rowing outreach programme for local schools organised by Rob Roy, came an astonishing eighth in the country in their coxed quadruple scull.
Two other Rob Roy youngsters, Levin Graf and Flora Turnbull came fifth and eighth respectively in their events, while squad fellow Charlotte Knapp came eleventh in a composite double scull with Lucy Whiteside from King’s Ely – and another eight juniors from the Club made it into the top 24.
Jo Burch, the Club’s Junior Squad Coordinator said, “I couldn’t be more proud of the achievements of our juniors. All of them raced their hearts out and did everything we asked of them – and were unlucky to miss out on medals. We took half our squad to the Championships and just about all of them came in the top half of their categories, which shows fantastic strength in depth”.
[Note: Photos of each of the mentioned crews, with two of the coxed quad, one as they go over the line and one at about 300m before the finish showing how close the competition was.
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