Medals mania for Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club Juniors

Hannah Lowe, Darcie Willis, Molly Archbold & Sally Tisdall - medals galore

At the first regatta of the season for the Hollingworth Lake Rowing Club juniors, the hard training over winter paid great dividends. The Liverpool Victoria Rowing Club hosted the Merseyside Regatta, raced over a 500m course in the Wallasey Docks on Saturday 3 May.

Although the morning started cold and windy with choppy water threatening to jeopardise the racing and stability of the boats, by lunch time the sun had come out, the waters calmed, and the racing was fiercely contended.

Due to the numbers of J13 and J14 competitors there were two divisions in each of the single, doubles and quads categories. The W.J13.2x double sculls saw Hannah Lowe and Molly Archbold win their races to take Gold in Division A, and Sally Tisdall and Darcie Willis win Gold in Division B. A clean sweep for HLRC.

The W.J14.2x double sculls Division B was a very closely contested fight between Jess Pilkington and Harriet Jackson of HLRC and the crew from Merchant Taylors’ School Boating Club. Although Jess and Harriet won three out of four races they were just beaten to gold but were awarded silver medals for a fantastic effort.

In the W.J13.1x single scull races Molly Archbold and Hannah Lowe won their races to take gold in categories A and B respectively. Another clean sweep for HLRC.

The J14.1x single scull races saw Tom Swithenbank race hard in a very tough group, as did Katie Hargreaves in the W.J16.1x, just losing out to the category winners.

The quad races finished the day for the club. The W.J14.4x+ coxed quad of Amy Aspinall, Harriet Jackson, Jess Pilkington and Sophie Webb, coxed by Gabriella Fennell, put in a great performance to win one of their races, but were up against some tough opposition.

The W.J13.4x+ quad, coxed by Katie Hargreaves, was rowed by Hannah Lowe, Sally Tisdall, Molly Archbold and Darcie Willis, who had all won medals earlier in the day. The quad, racing for the first time together, won their races to take another gold medal for the club.

A club spokesperson said: "Months of hard work and coaching throughout the winter, perfecting technique, strength and stamina under the watchful eyes of the Club Captain, Ian John, and the Junior Co-ordinator, Rachel Harris, was rewarded with great success and promise for the regatta season. Ian summed up the feelings of all the crews and parents when he said he was 'proud of them all'.”