The Junior Inter-regional Regatta.

Fifteen boys from the third, fourth and fifth years competed at this prestigious event on Saturday at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham.  They represented our region (one of twelve) known as WAGS and Wales.  The races were multi-lane and held over 1500m.

The J14s raced in a Quad scull in their very first regatta.  Having progressed to the ‘B’ final (places 7-12) they had a storming row and were lying neck and neck for second place until the last 100m but could not quite maintain that performance to the line.

The J16s combined with four boys from Llandaff Rowing Club to form a composite VIII.  A very encouraging row in the heat saw them placed in a centre lane for the ‘B’ final.  Here they raced extremely well for a new unit and charged home to win by a canvas over the crew from the West Midlands region.

The J15s rowed in a coxed four.  They proceeded to the ‘A’ final following a tough heat which saw them finish second behind a crew from Norwich School representing the Eastern Region, posting the second fastest time of all the boats in the event.  In the final Norwich went out to a very narrow lead but never broke free.  In the last 400m Monmouth rallied and closed the deficit but the crew from Latymer Upper, representing Thames London had sneaked through in lane two to take the gold.  With only 5 seconds between the first three boats our crew did brilliantly to hold their nerve and secure the bronze medal.  Their performance hopefully reflects the ‘marginal gains’ made on the recent Seville Training Camp.