Henley juniors strike gold at British Championships

HENLEY Rowing Club’s boys picked up gold and bronze medals at the British Rowing Championships while a Lower Assendon schoolgirl — daughter of a former gold medal-winning world champion — picked up silver at the four-day event that started last Friday at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham.

The Henley squad reached six A finals with the standout performance of the J15 coxed quadruple sculls crew of Diego Petrosillo, Flynn Burrow, Franco Bigmore Wallace, Miles Vann and cox Emma Groat. Having won gold at the National Schools’ Regatta in May they were trying to repeat that success on Sunday.

The leading contenders were Windsor Boys’ School but Henley had other ideas, and in the final, they led from the start and fought off a late challenge from Windsor to take gold.

Minutes earlier, Henley’s J16 coxless quadruple sculls crew of Charlie Green, Oscar Newson, Harrison Bartels-Thiel and Maxim Lusenko secured bronze in the A final. Sculling powerfully the Henley quad pulled clear of Wallingford Rowing Club in fourth place, finishing closely behind Windsor Boys’ School and winners George Watson’s College.

On the first day of racing, Henley’s J16 coxed four crew of Harrison Bartels-Thiel, James Weeks, Charlie Green, Maxim Lusenko and cox Eva Worboys swapped sculls for sweep oars and were fifth in the A final.

Elsewhere on Friday, Zak Jenkins, in a huge field of 80 J18 single scullers, sculled through his time trial and semi-final to reach the last six in the A final where he finished fifth.

On the final day of racing, Sebastian Lee, in J15 single sculls in another large field of 67 scullers, also reached the A final, finishing in fifth place. In J15 double sculls Diego Petrosillo and Miles Vann, following their win in J15 coxed quads the previous day, again raced through the time trial and semi to reach the A final, where they too finished fifth.

Meanwhile 16-year-old Zara Barnett picked up a silver medal in the club coxed fours for Millfield School.

The student from Lower Assendon currently rows for the Somerset school and trains with Upper Thames when she is at home. Barnett is the daughter of former world champion rower Juliet Machan, who won gold in the lightweight pair at the World Rowing Championships in 1998.

Stroking the four, Barnett and her crew delivered a strong series of performances, racing three times across the day. Despite a torrential rainstorm in their semi-final, they pulled out a commanding win which gave them confidence for the final.

A fast start to the final put Millfield School in the mix for a medal and as the race developed, it came down to three crews for podium finishes. With Agecroft’s crew edging ahead, it became a battle for silver between Barnett’s crew and the University of Cambridge.

Coming into the last 10 strokes it was still neck and neck, but with commitment and a stroke rate to match, the Millfield girls pushed away from Cambridge to take a silver medal by just a few feet. After gaining second place, Barnett said: “We’re so happy to get a medal. We thought we had a chance, but you never know what will happen. It was a nice way to finish my last race with Millfield.”

Earlier in the championships Barnett made the final of the J16 pairs with partner Clothier, who had only started rowing a year previously.