QEHS rowers attended the National Schools Regatta which this year was held at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham. This regatta is the biggest junior regatta in the country, attracting the best junior crews from all across the UK. QEHS Rowing had five crews entered to race across three days of racing, between the 23rd and 25th May.
To make finals at this regatta each crew has to race a time trial. Your time in the time trial then decides which final you will race in. On day one we had a year 9 girls quad (Ariel, Isla, Bella, Madeline, cox Constance) year 10 girls four (Isla, Poppy, Amelie, Jennifer, cox Libby) and a year 10 boys four (James, Barnaby, John, Morty, cox Adam).
Friday morning saw the lake flat and calm in the morning. The morning time trials saw the QEHS crews row well and execute their race plans. The year 10 boys posted the seventh fastest time and qualified for the B final. The year 10 girls put in a strong performance and qualified for the C final. The year 9 girls put together a very quick TT to finish an amazing 1st, being almost 5 seconds ahead of the crew in 2nd. Excellent results across the board, now all crews had to perform well in their respective finals.
In the afternoon finals the year 10 girls produced a strong performance to finish a close fourth and 16th overall. The year 10 boys pulled out one of the performances of the day. In their B final they were 5th going past 500m gone, but helped by Cox Adam, they rowed through the field to take a stunning win. The QEHS boys got a lot of praise for that performance. The boys were rightly buzzing as they came off the water. The year 9 girls who qualified fastest for their final were allocated to lane four. After a strong start, the girls continued to push hard against some really strong crews and came home in a superb third place. A brilliant performance for a crew that only started rowing in September 2024. In fact, this was the first medal QEHS had won at National Schools in 10 years!
At the end of racing on day one the event organisers took the difficult decision to cancel day three racing. After the superb weather, we had all spring, strong winds were forecast for the racing on Sunday. Unfortunately, this meant that our year 12 boys’ crew would not have the chance to race.
However, we did have a year 11 coxed four (Alexis, Dennis, Jacob, Alex, Cox Edward) racing on the Saturday. Conditions on Saturday were very choppy due to the increased wind strength. This made for some difficult racing conditions. The boys raced their time trial hard to qualify for the C final, where they posted a strong 18th place overall.
On reflection, this had been an excellent regatta for QEHS Rowers. The four QEHS rowing crews that had raced had reached one A final, one B final, and two C finals. It was amazing to walk away from this competition with bronze medals for the year nine girls.
A huge congratulations to all the QEHS athletes who committed to the preparation to perform at this event. It is great to see all of the hard work on the river, on dry land and on the rowing machines paying off with strong performances.
A special thank you to all the coaches who have made this possible this year. Without their knowledge and expertise, it would be impossible to perform at this level. Our next big event is the British Rowing Championships which will be held at the end of July.
#Respect #Engage #Aspire
