J14s return to the water
On Saturday 14th May, Headington’s J14 rowing boat got the chance to race out on the water once more.
The fixture involved one flat-out 1km side-by-side race. The A Octo and Surbiton’s A Octo went head to head first. The girls were clean and fast with a length lead in the first 30 seconds and when the girls settled into their rhythm they carried on moving away from the Surbiton crew. The girls rowed incredibly well to put Surbiton completely out of contention to finish with clear water.
In the B Octo’s Race, Surbiton fielded a B and C Octo so our girls had the added pressure of racing two crews. After getting out again to a good start the Headington girls were down on their B Octo but sitting a couple of seats upon their C Octo. Coming into the finish all 3 crews were in close contact with Surbitons B Octo slightly in front of ours.
Following this, the participants competed in some shorter races over 500m and side-by-side battle paddling. The B Octo enjoyed being able to test their abilities by battle paddling with the other Surbiton crews. The shorter races followed the same trend as the 1km with Headington getting out clean and fast and was great to put all of the hard training to use!
Mr Oli Gerrard, Rowing Coach at Headington School said: “Headington girls have been incredibly impressive this year by vigorously committing to all their sessions from water, gym, and online. For the majority of the J14 girls, this was their first experience of side by side racing.
“We fielded two strong Octo’s worth of girls showing a huge depth in abilities with around 21 girls in the whole squad.”
“The girls were absolutely chuffed to come away with the J14A victory as Surbiton won the Octo at National schools 2019.”
“An unfortunate crab meant the Surbiton crews both just beat them on the line but the girls all showed grit and determination to come so close!”
“Overall, all of the girls can take away a lot of confidence from our fixture for the upcoming races, it was fantastic to see the squad being able to race together! The Squad is all in a strong position and this should set them up with a bright future in the sport!”
A OCTO:
Cox: Mia
Stroke: Paula
7: Kate
6: Julia
5: Juliet
4: Issy
3: Leila
2: Emelia
Bow: Martha
B OCTO:
Cox: Sophie
Stroke: Rowena
7: Beth
6: Joey
5: Rose
4: Nikki
3: Elsa
2: Lily
Bow: Rania
