Sudbury Juniors Dominate Olympic Course

Five Sudbury junior crews raced at Dorney Lake, site of the Olympic Rowing event, in the Ball Cup Regatta. The club secured two silver medals and a bronze despite conditions rather unlike those of the Constablesque idyll of its home water.

The Ball Cup is competed by small schools and the junior contingents of rowing clubs over a 750 metre course at Eton Dorney, a course plagued by its crosswind.

In the women’s J15 singles category, Sudbury’s Ellie Adams achieved the fastest time of all the seventeen entrants but was beaten in the final, leaving with a highly creditable silver medal.

Young sculler Nick Scott experienced some of the strongest winds of the day in his J13 singles category: passing through his heat and into a final, in which he finished a close third.

Competing in the difficult first fours category, George Cook, Alex Blackman, George Jackson and Patrick King were coxed by Amy Bowles to an extremely closely fought fifth place.

Tom Bowles’s good start in the J17 singles turned to disappointment when the winds interrupted his race and demanded evasive steering.

George Cook, Tom Bowles and Alex Blackman were joined by 14-year-old Ellie Adams in what proved to be a popular crew in the J18 coxless quads category. Aware that their comparative youth and uniquely mixed status would potentially place them at a disadvantage, the Sudbury scullers made an unprecedented high-rate push at the 250 metre marker. An obvious underdog, the crew was powered over the last third by the crowds, finishing unexpectedly with a comfortable silver.