On Saturday 18 November, four boys and two girls travelled to Boston, Lincolnshire, to compete in the 1st round of the Junior GB trials. To be eligible to be put forward for these Early ID Assessment trials, for rowers aged 18 or under, athletes have to do a 2k ergo within a set time. The trials took place over 5km in single sculls and were run like a head race, with scullers being set off at approximately 20 second intervals.
For the Year 12 girls, Olivia Morgan finished 5th and Molly Sharman finished 61st out of 83 participants. Both girls will continue with the trailing process over the next few months. Because of Olivia’s fantastic result she should also be invited to the GB Junior winter training camp before Christmas held in Spain.
Oli Newton, who is the only one of the six to have gone through the trials process before, finished 19th out of 114 participants. Dom Brown finished 33rd, Marcus Brown finished 90th and Jack Norris finished 96th. Oli may also be invited on the GB winter camp in Spain but there has been no official selection just yet.
Director of Rowing, Mr David Currie, says of the weekend's efforts: 'This is the largest number of pupils I've taken to the first round of the GB trials since I joined in September 2014 and reflects the strength and commitment of the boat club as a whole. It's the first step on a long road but all the rowers conducted themselves well and put in a good show. Oli reached the fifth and final round of the trials last year, falling short at the last hurdle, but his performance on Saturday is most encouraging. The rowers are now looking towards the second round, which take place in February 2018.'
