Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club attended the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championhips for a fourth year running, with some high standards to live up to after a successful year in 2014. The smaller group of 16 rowers did not disappoint, with some excellent performances.
In the early event of the day, Alex Robertson faced a 2000 metre row in his year 13 event. Having travelled through the night from the Isle of Wight sports awards, Alex prepared to row off five hours sleep. At half way it was clear he was not going to achieve a personal best and held on to take eighth place.
In the year 12 event, Jaimey Wain, Henry Gove and Tom Leaver also faced the prospect of an unfavourable early morning 2000 metre row. They all rowed off hard, and it looked as though Tom may have gone too hard, but in an astonishing and undoubtably painful performance, Tom continued to battle through as his split time rollacoastered. To finish it off he pushed hard to the line to achieve a personal best and take sixth place! Both Henry and Jaimey sucame to the same early morning lul as Alex as they both missed out on personal bests. Nevertheless, Henry achieved a fantastic 13th and Jaimey 19th.
The next up was Lewis Jenkins. Standing at six foot, it is hard to believe Lewis is still only a year 8! He faced a three minute row on his machine. In one of the stand out performances of the day, Lewis battled through the pain in his first time at the championships to achieve a personal best and a placing of 17th out of 170 rowers! Incredible!
After a lengthy break in the day came the clubs highest entry, the Year 10 boys. Henry Mudge, Jamie Gamble, Andrew Swallow, Ed Hodge Thomas and Joe Robertson all faced a five minute race in their category. It was clear to see from all of their rows the pain they put themselves through, not leaving anything left in the tank. The best placing came for Joe, who once again achieved 17th (his placing the previous year). Ed Hodge Thomas, in his first competitive event did an amazing job coming in at 20th. Henry Mudge achived 56th, Jamie Gamble 68th and Andrew Swallow 120th. This was one of the highest entered events of the day, with 220 entries! Making the results even more impressive!
Following this was the Year 10 girls event. Daisy Faithful and Annabell Dalton faced the same grueling row as the boys. They both managed to finish in the top ten of their heat with Annabell 10th and Daisy finishing 2nd! Both achieved personal bests, with Daisy finishing 13th overall and Annabell 68th in another entry heavy event, this time 217 rowers!
The clubs penultimate event of the day was the Year 11 boys race, where lone Shanklin entry Harry Miselbach had a 6 minute row to complete. Harry started well and in an astonishing performance, executed his race plan to a tee and with a strong finish managed to win his heat! The result in the end was enough to place him in the top ten of his event, with over 70 rowers entered! An amazing achievement!
The clubs final event on the day was the Year 11 girls race, where Hannah Cusworth, Amber de Landro and Sophie Swallow would have to row the same length of time as Harry. All the girls were excellent on the day, hitting their target splits and all achieving personal bests. Amber managed a 20th place finish, with Hannah in 38th and Sophie in 56th! A great result in an event with almost 80 entries!
The club would not have been able to attend the event were it not for the efforts of Sandown Bay Academy teachers and club coaches specifically Kirsty Walker, James Hayden, Lesley Walters and Lisa Robertson who took the guys and girls overnight to event! The club would finally like to the thank the event organisers London Youth Rowing, who once again put on a fantastic show, with over two thousand rowers entered!