Nat Schools’ 2019

Two boys’ crews from the Hills Road squad at Cantabs raced at the National Schools Regatta on 24th-26th May.

The Non-Championship 8+ of Robert Steyn, Phil Sosnin, Jeremy Austin, Jed Benyon, Ethan Collier, Joshua Pearson, Sam Askew, Laurence Beauregard and cox Emily Staplehurst finished 27th in their time trial, just 2 seconds off qualifying for the C final.

In the subsequent side-by-side race, they had a much stronger start, making ground on Bedford Modern School and Reading Blue Coats to eventually lead by a few feet at the 100m mark, extending that to a canvas by the 1500m mark. In the last 500m, the heavier crews started to pull back and in the final metres, Bedford Modern put themselves a foot in front.

Having raced in the 8+ on Saturday, Sam Askew and Joshua Pearson then raced on the Sunday in the Championship 2-. They finished a very creditable 15th in their time trial in a very competitive event.

Andy Johnson, coach for the Hills Road boys, said:

To be able to compete with the big rowing schools is a real challenge for a club entry. Both of these results are outstanding. This is the fastest 8+ we’ve sent to the event, and to finish 2nd to Bedford Modern by 0.4s in a time of 6:24 reflects the dedication and commitment made by this group of boys. For the pair, which are a product of the Cantabrigian Junior Performance Squad led by Oli Frazer, the future beckons as they were competing in the J18 open event as a J17 pair. They have another year to improve, and should be excited about their prospects at next year’s event.

Full results can be found here. There were write-ups in the Cambridge Independent and Cambridge News on the boys’ performance, which can be found here.

If you are interested in finding out more about rowing with the Hills Road Squad or the Junior Performance Squad, please visit their pages on our website.

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