With Paris now consigned to history, the great and the good of British Rowing descended upon Boston, Lincolnshire for the first trials of the Los Angeles Olympic cycle. The weekend began with a 2km test on the rowing machines on Saturday afternoon, with scintillating times set across the board before the action moved to the River Witham for a five-kilometre race in singles and pairs.
While athletes who raced in Paris were exempt from the trials, Lauren Henry, who was part of the gold-medal-winning quad, opted to take part and was the class of the field. She won the women’s single by more than 40 seconds, a phenomenal demonstration of her single sculling ability—having hinted at a desire to target the boat class on the international stage.
Behind Henry was Jenny Bates of Oxford Brookes, an established name on the scene. She backs up her win at the April trials by once again claiming her spot as the top non-Olympian in the selection pool, five seconds ahead of Freya Keto, who led a field including many of the usual suspects as Sarah McKay and Katie Mole rounded out the top five.
On the U23 side, Reading University were well represented as the rise of Zara Povey continued. She finished sixth overall and 12.5 seconds ahead of all other scullers in her age group. Taking the spot as the second-fastest U23 sculler was Olivia Cheesmur, straight off her second consecutive medal at the U19 World Rowing Championships. Still racing for Molesey Boat Club, she will aim to seamlessly transition to the older category. Third amongst the younger age group was Rachel Bradley of Newcastle University, who is looking for her third successive GB vest. She finished 14th overall.
Other notable results from the women’s events include Molesey, who demonstrated the depth of their women’s squad as they placed three athletes in the top 11 overall. The university sculling ranks meanwhile look exciting, with talent spread among programmes: Reading and Newcastle Universities each have four BUCS-eligible scullers in the top 50 athletes, with Edinburgh having three.
On the men’s side, the standout entrant was George Bourne, newly in the light blue of Cambridge. Taking away top honours, his victory was not as convincing as Henry’s, with Cedol Daffyd of Leander Club within half a second of really upsetting the applecart. The Bath University graduate is shining even more light on himself following his international debut this summer at the Poznan World Rowing Cup. Behind them was a more significant gap to Rory Harris, who was 15 seconds back with Tobias Schroder close behind.
In fifth place overall was the top U23 athlete; Matt Long begins his second year at Reading University following on from a sensational freshers opener where he won four championship BUCS golds and made his senior international debut. The second U23 sculler was a more unknown name as William McClean announced himself to the world of British Rowing. Not exactly an established name within British Rowing, there is a possibility that the Swiss sculler of the same name has changed nationalities after finishing first and fourth in the single scull at the U19 European and World Rowing Championships, respectively. Club mate Byron Richards finished 17th overall and was the third U23.
New for this year’s trials was a requirement that all men receiving funding from specific national funds competed in the singles for this round, including those more comfortable in a sweep boat. The best performer among the recognised sweep athletes was likely Douwe de Graaf who finished 13th alongside Calvin Tarczy in 16th as the former St Paul’s and Harvard athletes shone.
This ruling did leave the pairs lighter on quality on the top end as the entry was made up of largely university and club athletes with Oxford University’s Saxon Stacey and Felix Rawlinson leading the field. Behind them were pairs from Leander, Thames and Oxford Brookes with the latter’s second pair of Kai Schlottmann and Lorenzo Prevati being the fastest fully U23-eligible crew in ninth overall.
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