Great weekend for Hollingworth rowers

Rosie Pickles of Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club

Three junior members of Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club competed at the British Junior Rowing Championships on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 July 2019.

The event is held over a 2000m course at The National Water Sports centre in Nottingham.

The three, Rosie Pickles (WJ16), Tia Lenihan (WJ15) and Joe Diver (OJ16) first raced in a time trial on Saturday morning to rank them against others in their events.

The water conditions were very challenging (more like the North Sea) and put many competitors off, however Rosie pushed hard and came 6th in a field of 27 and Tia overcame the conditions to come 4th out of 45, putting both girls in the A/B semi-finals the following day. Unfortunately Joe caught a crab (an accident that occurs when a rower loses control of his or her oar) early in his time trial which kept him out of the major finals.

Conditions were slightly better on Sunday morning for the semi-finals – Rosie was on first and came 3rd in a tough race which put her in the WJ15 A final. Tia also had a great race but sadly couldn’t pull back from the 4th position she found herself in, putting her in the WJ15 B final.

After refuelling and resting for around 4 hours and now in bright sunshine, the girls got ready for their final races.

Rosie had a good start but then dropped to 6th place in the 2nd 500m – she pushed hard again and managed to pull back two places finishing 4th overall. This was a great improvement on last year when she won the D final, 19th overall.

Tia couldn’t keep pace with the other rowers from the start and she found herself down from the beginning – to her credit, she too fought hard and clawed her way back through the field, finishing 4th in the B final, 10th overall.

Their coach Ian John said: "Both girls took on the challenge and greatly exceeded their own expectations - I was immensely proud to watch them perform to this standard at a national event."