The regatta season made a promising start for Shiplake College Boat Club at the International Gent Spring Regatta. Michael Glover, Jamie Mottram, Dom Marsh and Max Chandler were part of the Senior and J16 Squad that made the journey across to Belgium after completing an exhausting training camp at Shiplake. On the first day of racing all squads broke down into a variety of smaller boats and the first win did not take long to come as a Coxless Four made up of boys from the 1st VIII won Under 23 Coxless Fours. The 1st VIII was also delighted to have won J18 Eights in an event that contained crews from 4 different nations. In particular it was also pleasing to beat local rivals Pangbourne College by 8 seconds. Not to be outdone the J16 Squad also picked up medal performances to finish 3rd in J16 Coxless Fours in what was a fantastic race against Westminster School and another 3rd place in J16 Quads. Sunday proved to be an equally successful day with wins in the J18 Coxless Four in what Head Coach Mr Mackworth Praed called a ‘cracking race’. This crew had to work all the way down the course and finished 3 seconds ahead of a crew made up from the Belgium Junior National Team and just behind them was Pangbourne College. The Senior Squad also brought home a Silver medal in J18 Coxless Pairs and another Silver in J16-18 Coxed Fours narrowly being beaten by Pangbourne. The 1st VIII decided to enter Senior Eights on Sunday to test themselves against some quicker opposition and they certainly did not disgrace themselves finishing in 5th place but only with 5 seconds separating them and the winners of the event. The J16 Eight had a far better race on the Sunday although training camp and racing fatigue really kicked in at the 1000m marker but this has left this crew with plenty of optimism for the regatta season.
Several other Everett pupils were among those benefitting from and enjoying rowing camps at Shiplake College during the Easter holiday the hard work has been put in and hopefully the rewards will come at our first race of the season next week at the Eton Regatta.
