Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club’s Ethan Walters ventured up to the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham for this year’s British Rowing Junior Championships last weekend.
At a national level, J14 rowers take part in a Multi Skilled omnium event which involves seven key disciplines covering a 500m sprint, slalom and a series of timed skills and manoeuvrability tests. Having only turned 13 last month and with another year in this age group, Ethan was only too aware that he would be competing against much physically mature oarsmen.
However, the young rower from Sandown Bay Academy, got off to excellent start completing the first five, very challenging disciplines with flying colours. This then left the 500m sprint and 200m slalom within the 45 minute ‘circuit’ in which to score as many points as possible. Speed was regained well after a slow start to record a quick sprint time and the slalom also went to plan, scoring highly, picking up just one five second penalty on the latter.
In a field of nearly 80 competitors, Ethan was delighted with his 18th place overall, and national Top 20 junior ranking for the J14 age group.