Highly competitive British Rowing Junior and Senior Club Championships conclude with clutch of close races

Senior Beginners and younger and adaptive Juniors competed for nine titles on the fourth and final day of racing at Holme Pierrepont Country Park, Nottingham

All of the racing today took place over 1000m in bright but breezy conditions, which were the most tricky across the four days of these Championships.

Senior events

The last two Senior events of the Championships were in the new Beginner category, only open to athletes who have taken up classic rowing on the water (regardless of discipline) after 1 June last year.

Bath University BC – home of British Rowing’s South West Performance Development Academy – won both the Open and the Women’s Beginner Double sculls in fine style.

In the Open category, University of Surrey BC took silver with bronze a dead heat, jointly awarded to Warwick BC and the University of Birmingham. Meanwhile following home Bath University’s Izzy Langley and Freya Ridge, who had also won Women’s Beginner Double Sculls at the British Universities (BUCS) Regatta earlier in the summer, were Millfield RC and University of London BC.

Tom Selby, Bath University BC coach, said, “Winning here is a great feeling. For them it means everything. It’s their first starting point and there were some challenges with the strong headwind today, but nothing they haven’t been able to manage. They’re just really excited to be here. They started rowing in November, and we have been training them within the South West programme. They’ve trained consistently to deliver with these performances.”

Junior events

In the Open Junior AR-O Single sculls the gold medal went to Jack Donaghy of Tees RC, ahead of Isaac Clarkson of Stratford upon Avon BC. These two athletes are in different age groups (Isaac being two years younger), but raced each other in this combined event.

“It feels great to be British Champion now!”

Jack said, “It was a tough start because the wind is really bad out there. But it feels great to be British Champion now!”

The first of the J14 and J15 medal finals, the Open J14 Single sculls produced a fantastic display of technique, fitness and race tactics, perhaps as you’d expect as the six scullers in the final had won through from a Time Trial of 46 entries. Ruairidh McNab of George Watson’s produced a brave finishing sprint to reach the line first – despite a small crab – just 0.98 seconds ahead of Henry Crisp of Bedford RC. Arran Brown of Berwick ARC also finished strongly to take the bronze, a mere 0.86 seconds in front of Ted Limb of Derwent RC.

After an equally exciting finish, Henley RC won the Open J14 Quadruple sculls by 1.43 seconds from silver medallists Falcon RC. Brentford RC claimed bronze by just 0.12 seconds from Maidenhead RC.

With little time to break free in 1000m, the Open J15 Double sculls provided another blanket finish featuring a daring row-through. Fewer than six seconds separated the six crews, one of the closest finals of the entire Championships, but the Hexham RC/Exeter RC composite snatched gold by 0.25 seconds from Hereford RC with Walbrook RC third.

Phoebe Asquith A B Severn BC earned her title as British Champion in the Women’s J15 Single sculls with an extremely mature performance that kept her bows just enough in front of Caitlin Warnock of Glasgow RC, with Elyssa Stoker of City of Sunderland RC close behind in third position. This was another enormous event, in which 69 scullers completed this morning’s Time Trial, making these medals both hard won and richly deserved.

The medallists from the 57 crews who started in the Women’s J14 Double sculls time trial were decided by another superb race. Trent RC took gold, Henley RC silver and City of Bristol RC bronze.

City of Bristol RC was clearly on a roll, then winning Women’s J15 Quadruple sculls by another less-than-a-bowball margin of 0.15 seconds from Marlow RC with Henley RC third, and all three hotly pursued by the chasing pack.

Victor Ludorum standings after Day 4

The results from the final day of racing  made no difference to the leaders in the Victor Ludorum standings, but Bath University BC came in at second in the Senior rankings, and The Windsor Boys’ School BC overtook Hinksey Sculling School to secure third place Overall.

“We had lots of good kids and a fantastic team spirit”

Katie Greves, Director of Junior Rowing at Wallingford RC, “We’re so pleased to win this! We knew we had lots of good kids and a fantastic team spirit, so it’s really special for the club. Everyone is so supportive. We had 58 crews entered in total including composites, and we’ve had amazing camaraderie on the campsite where we’ve been staying. It’s created a real team atmosphere, where if people have had to jump in they do which is really lovely.

We’ll be investing the £1000 prize money from the Overall Victor Ludorum in a new eight. It hasn’t been a priority boat for the club before, but we’ve got a really developing men’s squad and a really strong masters squad so a top class eight is something we really need to match the aspirations of the club. This will be going into the budget for that which is really exciting.”

Award	1st	2nd	3rd
Junior	Wallingford RC	Marlow RC	The Windsor Boys’ School BC
Senior	Thames RC	Bath University BC	Cambridge University BC
Overall	Wallingford RC	Marlow RC	The Windsor Boys’ School BC

Visit the BRJSCC hub page for full results and photos:

BRJSCC hub

Reflecting on the four days of racing at the British Rowing Junior and Senior Club Championships, Organising Committee Chair Mike Martin said, “I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all the people who volunteered and helped to make this event such a successful one. It’s the first year we’ve combined the existing junior and new senior programmes and extended to four days in this brilliant venue in Nottingham. The weather has been kind to us and the racing has been fantastic. There have been lots and lots of happy faces and close finishes across over 160 clubs, which is more than we could’ve even imagined. Thank you to everyone who has taken part, from crews to competitors and so many loyal supporters – we look forward to continuing to build on this success next year.”

Fiona Rennie, Volunteer Manager, said, “It’s been a fantastic effort from all of our volunteers across four days of racing in Nottingham. Everybody brought a smile and some colour to the competition. It’s been lovely to see so many new faces, and we hope to see them all back again in 2025!”

Watch back the Day 4 coverage on Champs Live