News from the Junior Squad

Approaching the end of a first full year of winters training at TRC, head coach James Loveday and his coaching team have put in a massive effort to produce a season of success.

The junior section recently produced exceptional results at GB junior trials, where Oscar Bird of Thames and Alex Belgarnie of Westminster raced the best in the country to finish 2nd in J18 pairs on both days. Alex Kelly experienced the trials system for the first time and finished 1st from 43 entrants in the J16 1x category. Both of these athletes have hopes of gaining a GB vest this year.

The junior women’s squad are beginning to reap the benefits of a hard winter this weekend to place 2nd in WJ18 quad at Hammersmith Head. To top that the ultra-competitive J16 girls came home 1 second behind them to win the J16 title, beating all but two J18 crews in the process.

All juniors now set their sights on the Schools Head of the River on 16th March and The National Junior Sculling Head on the 17th March. This is the first crew boat test against the rest of the country and an opportunity to see how close Thames RC in partnership with London Youth Rowing are to becoming one of the top junior clubs in the country.