The return of the National Schools Regatta to the National Watersports Centre at Nottingham after a 10 year stay at Dorney Lake coincided with the end of a spell of good weather, and as a result the weather was to play a significant part in proceedings.
As the largest junior rowing event in the country, the National Schools Regatta showcases the depth and breadth of young talent, with over 5000 competitors from across the UK making their way to Nottingham for the scheduled 3 days of competition between May 23rd and 25th.
Now under the stewardship of new Chair Mike Martin the event was again sponsored by Elston Consulting. Its relocation to a more central venue along with a reduction in entry prices, and changes to scheduling, were aimed at making it more accessible to a broader range of entrants.
After the limitations of recent years it was good to see entries for the Regatta, which has brought much success for Durham ARC in the past, returning to more normal levels with the younger age groups again being well represented.
J14 and J15 events were scheduled for Friday, and J16 and Championship events for Saturday and Sunday, J14 events being contested over 1000 metres and J15 and Championship events over 2000 metres
Durham ARC had entries in four events, each of which consisted of a qualifying time trial followed by finals contested side by side in 6 lanes –
- Florence Wilks, Cherry Liu-Hill, Poppy Holmes-Morris, Eve Hollowbread and cox Alexandra Chilton in the J14 girls 4x+ were one of 46 entries in the time trial at 9.53am on Friday, taking 20th place in 4.23.52 followed by 1st place in the D final in 4.32.56. Race result here.
- William Tew, Dominic Lee, Hunor Pinter, Sam Hancill and cox Aled Auyeung were among 47 entries in the Open J14 4x+ time trial at 10.18am on Friday, finishing 12th fastest in 3.56.49 followed by 3rd place in the B final on Friday afternoon in 3.58.45. Race result here.
- Gem Anderson, Livvy Terry, Elizabeth Belsey, Iris Mitchell and cox Scarlett Nicholson were one of 38 entries in the time trial for the J15 girls First 4x+ at 12.19pm, placing 3rd in 7.58.1 to go into the A final on Friday evening, in which they were 5th in 8.22.03. Race result here.
- Quinn Mosley in the Open Championship single sculls was to start among 61 entries in the time trial at 8.28am on Saturday morning, an event for which repechages and minor finals were scheduled for Saturday, followed by semi-finals and major finals on Sunday.
All was going well until Friday evening when the Race Committee announced that because of the adverse weather forecast it had been decided to cancel the whole of the racing programme for Sunday and to reschedule Saturday racing with the omission of semi-finals, as well as bringing forward Sunday finals to Saturday. The reasoning behind the cancellation is explained in a Chairman’s update.
The Championship 1x time trial went ahead on Saturday morning with Quinn Mosley achieving an excellent 2nd place in a time of 7.34.81 over 1750 metres to qualify for the A final at 2pm the same afternoon. Although up against stiff opposition, including eventual winner Elias Tejpaul of the American School in London who had won a bronze medal representing Switzerland at the 2024 Coupe de la Jeunesse, he again finished 2nd in challenging conditions to take the silver medal. Race result here.
Photo by AllMarkOne available here. Event galleries are here.
Results from all races have been provided by Time Team and can be found here.
Footage of both days of racing can be found on Youtube, for Friday and Saturday.
All of our juniors performed brilliantly well in what is the toughest competition in British junior rowing.
Photo: Ben Rodford