Rowing Nationals

Last week the Shawnigan rowing team traveled to St. Catharines, Ontario for the 72nd Annual CSSRA Regatta.

 

Flying through the night on May 29, students arrived at Brock University Tuesday morning and after a quick rest, were down to the race course to wash, rig, and practice on the world famous Royal Canadian Henley Regatta course. Significant winds kept the crew on shore Tuesday but with all the rigging done, the crew got on the water first thing Wednesday morning for one row before the wind returned. The conditions Thursday were fantastic and everyone got two rows in before noon.

 

Racing began on Friday with all Shawnigan crews performing well. By the end of the day, Shawnigan had 12 of 14 entries still racing on Saturday. Again with great weather, racing went off without a hitch on the second day of racing and our crews put 5 boats into the Sunday finals with a number of crews narrowly moving on. 

 

The Junior Women's 4+ was our first crew to race. This was close right from the start and came right down to the line to decide the winner. Shawnigan earned bronze medals in this event, finishing just 2.02 seconds back of the winning crew from E.L. Crossley. 

 

Next up, the Junior Men's 4x raced. They fought their way to a 5th place finish in a very competitive field of crews, with the winning boat from Saratoga, New York. 

 

After a break for Shawnigan crews, the Senior Women's 4+ raced. Shawnigan placed 6th in the final and with two strong rowers – Claudia and Hannah – returning next year, there is excitement in the group about what's to come. 

 

The Junior Women's 8+ was set up to be a very close race based on the times from Saturday. Coming through the 1000m mark on the course, Shawnigan was still in it but just could not match the power in some of the other crews. The girls finished a well-earned 5th in a final behind Havergal (a Toronto-based girls school).  All of the other boats in the final were from the United States. 

 

The last race for Shawnigan was the Junior Men's 2x.  They came down the course just as the Junior Women's 8+ was returning to the dock and although the 8+ was still feeling disappointed from their race, every girl in the boat turned and cheered as loud as they could for Sam and Josh. The boys fought off a push from the 4th place boat but just could not muster the pressure to catch the two lead crews and came away with bronze medals. 

 

With many Grade 9 and 11 athletes racing this weekend, there is already a buzz for next year!

 

– Submitted by Mr. Colin Mattock, Head of Rowing.