This year’s 1st GB rowing assessment at Boston saw the senior men’s scullers take up the top six spots in the 5km water trial on Sunday. As well as putting in some greatly impressive 2km free rate scores om the Saturday. On the whole, the larger clubs with strong high-performance programmes were at the top of the times sheets, such as Leander, Tideway Scullers and Oxford Brookes.
Jack Burns took the win in the time trial representing Edinburgh University/Leander Club, a credit to his rapid ascent in the world of GB rowing in the past year. He earned his first Senior international cap for GB at World Cup III in Sabaudia, Italy, winning the C final of the men’s 1x. Furthermore, he reached the Friday of Henley Royal Regatta in the Double Sculls alongside Will Fletcher as well as winning the Championship 4x event at this year’s Four’s Head of the River racing for Leander. This win for Jack in the time trial is on top of 10th place in the 2k, producing a time of 5:55.2, this is an extremely strong result to build on throughout the year and it’ll be interesting to see how Jack’s season develops.
Sebastian Devereux took second place in the 1x, contrary to Jack, Sebastian has been on the GB rowing scene for a number of years now, he won U23 gold in 2017 at the World Championships alongside Sam Meijer in the double and made the final of the Diamond Challenge Sculls this year at Henley. This is a really good start from Sebastian in his ambitions to break into the senior sculling squad at Caversham this year, and with the experience he has this isn’t something I wouldn’t be surprised to see.
Completing the top three was George Bourne racing for Tideway Scullers, similarly to Jack, George is part of the next generation of GB men’s sculling, alongside other athletes such as Sam Meijer and Mat Haywood. I’m sure George will be pleased to have beaten these two athletes in this trial, pushing his name forward as a serious contender for a senior sculling seat for next summer. He also completed his 2k in a really strong time of 5:55.1, displaying his speed both on and off the water.
Mathew Aldridge put in an incredible water time in the single to place fourth, a seriously impressive performance considering he’s trialling as a sweeper and has been an incredibly successful athlete as a part of Oxford Brookes University programme, winning Henley 6 times in the last 5 years. The reason he raced the single was due to his pair partner, Sam Nunn, having an operation on his hip right before this trial, hence he switched to sculling, making this result even more impressive.
Overall, this trial had the country’s finest non-Olympic scullers placing at the top end of the results, alongside a few stand-out shock performances from the likes of Mathew Aldridge. It’ll be exciting to see if any of these top scullers can fight their way into senior crew for the coming season.
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