The February trials results this year gave many new faces a chance to stand out, with only two Coupe returners racing in the pairs. Only eight girls have been invited to compete for seats at Munich Regatta at Spring Assessments, and this should be an intriguing preview into who’ll be looking the most competitive for the few girls sweep seats available at Junior Worlds this summer.
Bow side
Rachel Heap (Becket RC)
Rachel has a good ergo indicating her strength as one of the leading girls sweepers, something that the GB coaches are always looking out for. Rachel’s winning performance on the weekend will undoubtedly lead to a successful season, as she has shown that she can respond under pressure and in a scratch crew, when necessary. This will be key for seat racing later on, and may be enough to earn her a seat at Junior Worlds in the summer.
Jane Hardie (George Heriots School)
Jane finished 5th with Molesey girl, Emma Duncan, who has not been invited to Springs’. This is likely due to her good performances on the 5k and 2k ergs this season. It is difficult to predict exactly what Jane is capable of, however if she can put her mind to improving technically as much as possible in the next few months, she could have a chance of performing well against some of the other bow siders who beat her in November.
Ella Morgan (Henley RC)
Ella has been involved in the trialing system for a few years now, and this pairs result placing 2nd, was her best to date, indicating she has made some good improvements over the last few months. Provided she continues to make progress, Ella Morgan is likely to perform decently well at Springs and may be in for a shot of making a Munich boat.
Flo Donald (Lea RC)
With a strong set of erg scores behind her, as well as a bronze, silver and gold at Coupe last year included in some of her consistently strong water performances, it is unsurprising to see Flo being invited to Spring assessments. After finishing 3rd in the pairs with Marlow’s Charlotte Fennel, it is clear that although perhaps they didn’t gel on the day as well as the two leading pairs did, they still most definitely have the strength to be aiming for Worlds or Coupe this year.
Stroke side
Mary Wright (Henley RC)
Despite racing predominantly in the Henley quad so far this season, Mary’s had a very strong start to the trialling process with a victory in the pairs, almost 10 seconds ahead of her 2nd placing Henley club mates. With many highly ranked ergs to go along with her water results, Mary is most certainly one of if not the strongest stroke siders in the GB trialling system.
Issy Jonsson (Henley RC)
Whilst her ergs aren’t as strong as her Henley clubmate’s, Issy still finished in 2nd place, 10 seconds ahead of third place too in a pair with Ella Morgan, also from Henley. Whilst her pair most likely would have trained together more than the competition, 2nd is still a very solid result and puts Issy in a good place for the rest of the trialling process.
Charlotte Fennel (Marlow RC)
Charlotte Fennel finished third in the pairs with partner Flo Donald, a Coupe returner from last year. Whilst this was possibly a slightly weak result for their pair considering Flo’s past performances, Charlotte has still had some good results behind her such as a win in J164+ at HWR last year and a bronze in WJ4x+ at Head of the Charles. After posting stronger erg scores than some of her competitors too as well as not finishing too far off them, Charlotte is still a strong contender to compete for a seat in GB’s top boat this summer.
Celia Matthews (LEH)
Whilst Celia didn’t actually attend the February assessment, most likely due to illness or injury, she has still been invited to race at the Spring assessments, most likely because of her place in the Coupe 8+ and 2- last year, and despite having slightly comparatively weak ergs this year, she also finished a strong 9th place at EIDs in a single scoring her a place on the Spain potential camp.
February assessments provided some slightly surprising results with many girls without past GB performances finishing at the top. With only 8 girls sweep invited to race at Spring Assessments for a chance to compete for GB at Munich where only four girls sweep competed last year, competition will be tight.
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