Youngsters succeed at Ball Cup

Posted on May 18, 2009 | Filed under Rowing

Rising to a bright and sunny morning in Evesham only seemed to signify good things to come for  rowers travelling to Dorney this weekend. The annual Ball cup regatta is always heavily attended by Evesham’s Juniors, and this year was no different. Out in force to battle out multilane racing over 1000metres of Dorney Lake, venue of the up and coming 2012 Olympics, they were ready to win.

Before the day was fully under way it seemed the club were clocking up medals, with a Gold medal for Natasha Bradley who dominated the women’s J15 single sculls event,  before teaming up to cox fellow squad members Olivia Walklett, Laura Attwood, Emily Waters and Hayley Pawlowski to another barely contested victory, with a demonstration of first class sculling in the WJ15 coxed quads event. This fiery form was also followed by the J14 coxed quad- Wil Taylor, Ross McIlldowie, James Waterhouse and Jack Towers, and cox Zoe Thomas. In good form the boys pulled away off the start and just kept the power on, keeping a safe distance ahead until the last 100m when Thomas called for a final push and the crew obliged, giving them a length ahead of their nearest rival.

The boys continued the medal winning trend with the J14 double of Alex Russell and Rupert Malein giving a fine demonstration of racing in their final, leading all the way, fighting for Gold right up to the line, but just being pipped by a bowball to the finish by a strong double from Tideway Scullers School. Wil Taylor also clocked up a silver in J14 single sculls, ahead of crewmate Ross McIlldowie who came a very respectable fourth, being bested by a local sculler from Stratford- Upon- Avon Boat Club.

Dan Walker and Tom Leighton collected the third Silver in their J18 double sculls event, with a matter of inches separating them from gold. Abigail Penrose rounded up the medal listing with a Bronze in WJ18 single sculls, having maintained a position at the front of the pack for most of the race she slipped back into bronze medal position as her main rival pushed past her to claim the silver in the last 250metres. Notable performances were made by the Junior 13 athletes, both boys and girls putting in promising races, and although non claimed medals the J13 boys did remarkably well, getting through to the final in two respective doubles and a coxed quad of Sam Galeckyj, Liam Tustin, Patrick Sullivan, Ed Watkins and cox Anthony Davies. A brilliant day for all, and a fantastic benchmark of results in advance of the National Schools Regatta, the biggest national event for Juniors, later this month

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