On 16th of July five boys went to the National Junior Rowing Championships (Nat Champs) to race a J16 4+ in Nottingham.
William Burrow, Lewis MacPherson, Ben Eaton and Sam Gelder were in the crew, with Joe Gelder coxing.
As there were only eight crews entered there were two heats with four competitors in, with the first two proceeding to the final on the next day. The other four then went to a repechage with the first two again going to the final.
Their first race was at 14:25 and conditions where very rough with a strong head wind.
The crew put in a decent performance despite the terrible conditions, but unfortunately still came last in the heat, with a time of just over nine minutes. The fastest time was only just over eight minutes, so the wind had had a great effect.
This was only the second race of the day after the tie trials, but it was also the last as all subsequent races were cancelled for the day until 18:00 when the wind was forecasted to calm. These would be in a time trial format over 1500 metres. The crew put in a much better performance, but still only came third, missing out on the final by only ten seconds.
Despite the dissapointment it was a good day and they did do well considering that the crew had only been together for fewer than two months, with one of the members only a J15 with only three months or so experience in sweep boats. Therefore they put in a good performance considering, coming seventh overall.
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