Rowing - Northampton Juniors Impress

Northampton Rowing Club travelled to Peterborough to compete in the annual time trial. There was an impressive entry with over 300 boats competing with crews coming from as far afield as York.

As far as Northampton were concerned, the outstanding crew of the day was a junior under 16 crew of Cameron McKenzie from Northampton School for Boys and Tom Bryan from Wellingborough school. Racing over the 2600 metre course on the river Nene at Peterborough, they came away with a memorable win. They won the event by 23 seconds from, St Peter's School, York with Bedford Rowing club in third place, over 1 minute behind. These two exceptional athletes were the 3rd fastest scullers of the day beaten only by the Senior men from Peterborough and the University of East Anglia.

Lotte Childs, a student at Northampton School for Girls, finished in a respectable third place behind GB hopeful Eleanor Gough from Leicester, while Surya Srinivasan who attends Bosworth Independent School was 2nd in the J15 event just 7 seconds behind a Bedford sculler.

The Senior men's coxless four finished 2nd behind Broxbourne. This was an ongoing battle between the two clubs which has seen several close encounters over the last 12 months.

Northampton also entered a senior men's and a senior women's eight. The men had a creditable result coming second while the women came 6th out of the seven entries. Both of these crews are training for their respective Head of the River races in March, racing over the Oxford vs Cambridge boat race course, but in the opposite direction.

On the Sunday, 16 year old Teagan Smith travelled to the National Squad training centre at Caversham. This is aptly named 'The Redgrave/Pinsent lake' and is the home of the GB National squad, who are currently preparing for the Paris Olympic Games. Teagan having been selected as one of Britain's fastest under 19 women's junior single scullers was overjoyed and keen to set a good impression. Despite being one of the youngest scullers out of the 20 girls invited, she impressed the GB coaches and selectors with her faultless technique, combined with her power and determination. She performed brilliantly against the best GB junior athletes the country has to offer. This is the first step in the long process of trying to gain selection for the Junior World Championships in August at St Catharines, on the shores of Lake Ontario in Canada. She is now preparing for her next test at the GB U19 trials in Boston, Lincs on the 17th/18th February.