Author: lrcadmin

Leicester Rowing Club’s single sculler Lauren Henry topped a successful season by winning her Junior 16 age category at the British Rowing Junior Championships on Sunday. Over 2 days of gruelling competition Lauren came out on top of a field of 28 athletes from around the UK. Third place in Saturday’s time trial was followed by victory in the semi-final, which secured a prime lane for the final. After making a positive start in the 5-boat final Lauren patiently worked her way through the field to hit the front in the final 500m before rowing away from her opposition to win by an impressive margin of over 4 seconds. This victory follows a semi-final appearance at Henley Women’s Regatta racing against rowers two years her senior and wins in both national and regional regattas in her own age category earlier in the season.

Afterwards a delighted Lauren commented, ‘It was definitely a really tough race – but I just stuck to my race plan and it worked in the end. I would like to thank my coach, Howard Marsh. Without him none of this would have been possible. I would also like to thank Leicester Rowing Club who have supported me in many ways throughout this season’

Coach Howard Marsh, who was presented with a gold medal by Lauren to recognise his efforts comments ‘Lauren has worked incredibly hard over the last 10 months. She sculled with great maturity, sticking to her race plan when other scullers were ahead of her, fighting her way back, before sprinting clear. This year has not been all plain sailing, it’s had its ups and downs, but Lauren has consistently shown a great deal of determination to improve. This win really caps off a very good season for her and I know she is looking forward to making more progress next year and potentially being selected for the GB Junior team.

Club President Liz Pulford added
‘We are all very proud of what Lauren has achieved and have been impressed by her hard work and determination.’

Watch Lauren racing her final on Youtube from 7:15:00

In the final Rowing World Cup of the season, held on the famous Rotsee course in Lucerne, Switzerland, Great Britain’s quad scull, with Leicester Rowing Club’s Jonny Walton at 2, came through strongly in the 2^nd half of the final to beat the Dutch crew by 0.74 seconds, or about ¼ of a length.  The GB crew of Tom Barras at stroke, Graeme Thomas at 3, Jonny at 2, John Collins at bow, coached by Paul Stannard, rowed a very controlled race for the first half.  At 1000m they were lying 4^th, ¾ of a length down on the race leaders Germany.  The GB quad then raised their rate by 2 pips and started to make inroads into the leaders.  By the 1500 mark, they were in 2^nd, just behind the Dutch who had also sculled past the German quad.  At 1500m GB went up another pip, then raised their rate by one every 100m into the finish, where they crossed the line rating 42.

The GB quad also won the Quad sculls World Cup series, having gained the most points over the three races, where they picked up gold in Belgrade, Linz the y finished 7^th and gold in Lucerne.

The quad, hopefully with Jonny on board, will race next at the European Sports Championships, with the rowing being held this year at Strathclyde Country Park in Scotland, from Thursday 2^nd to Sunday 5^th August.  For tickets for the rowing, go to: https://www.glasgow2018.com/tickets?sport=rowing.