HSFC Rowing Academy members compete for GB U19 Squad
Posted on 11th December 2024
HSFC Rowing Academy
Over the course of October, Hereford Sixth Form College Rowing Academy have been training hard to get their best 2km times on the indoor Rowers (Erg's). These demanding targets are set by British Rowing to start identifying the best rowers in the UK. Both Hamish G and Ollie L met the initial targets of 6:50 or better and were therefore invited to attend the first of the Early Identification rowing trials on the River Witham at Boston in Lincolnshire.
Arriving early on the morning of Saturday 16th November, Boston Rowing Club was packed with single sculls, trailers and Junior athletes with their coaches. Our first job was to register, get our boating numbers, and then our students had to undertake Anthropomorphic assessments - Height, Arm Span and Mass. After a decent warm up, the 201 male athletes were allowed on the water in boating order where they paddled 5km upstream from the club to the marshalling point. Once everyone was in position, British Rowing set each athlete off in 30 second intervals, recording their times at the start and again at the finish line 5km later.
Hamish and Ollie both had excellent rows, applying their fitness and sculling technique throughout the whole race, and leaving nothing in the tank. Hamish achieved a time of 20:14.0 and Ollie 20:01.2, placing them 117th and 96th respectively out of 201 athletes. This is a fantastic start to the trials process for our Hereford boys, as they are up against athletes who most likely had a year’s experience over our athletes.
The next step in the trials is a 5km erg to be submitted in December, and on achieving the target of 17:40, and being in the top 2/3 of the 1st time trials, should be invited back to the 2nd Time trials in February. Each step gets progressively more demanding, and only a few athletes will make it to selection to the GB U19 squad competing at the European and World championships in Summer 2025.
Thank you to Hereford Cathedral School Coach, David Newham who towed our two sculls to and from Boston.
Article written by Jason Lee, Lead Rowing Coach at Hereford Sixth Form College Rowing Academy.