British Rowing Champions 2012 declared
The British Rowing Championships celebrated their 40th Anniversary with a full three-day programme last weekend, despite earlier concerns about flooding and bad weather. By Sunday evening 48 British Champions had been declared in a range of Junior, Under 23, Lightweight and Senior events.
The 2012 British Champions come from all over the country and from as far afield as Gibraltar – where Calpe and Mediterranean Rowing Clubs also form part of the British Rowing family. Marlow Rowing Club and Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School head the gold medal table with particularly impressive wins in Junior events. Aberdeen Schools’ Rowing Association’s Junior Women’s four won two gold medals, in both the coxed and coxless fours.
They were certainly not record-breaking conditions, but no-one told Joss Taylor and Harry Taylor from Trentham Boat Club, who managed to knock nearly a second off the course record for Open Junior 14 Double Sculls in a very closely-fought eliminator. They went on the take the silver medal in the final the following day.
The photo-finish camera was kept busy with an unusually high number of close finishes, and several finalists had a short but agonising wait to see which colour of medal they had won. The results are available from www.britchamps.org
This year marks the last British Rowing Championships in the current three-day format. Next year the event splits in two, with Juniors racing on the traditional July weekend, and Seniors on a new mid-October date.
