King’s Ely Boat Club is celebrating another successful regatta!
Forty-three of our rowers competed in the highly-anticipated Poplar Regatta, which took place at the London Regatta Centre on May 19th.
The achievement of the day came from our J14 boys – Rollo, Kit, Jasper, Matthew G, and Rikhil – who rowed with technique and power to win their category, beating Dulwich College and King’s School Canterbury.
However, as our Head of Rowing, Mr Craig Ward, explains, there were so many impressive performances from King’s crews!
Mr Ward said: “The day started with the J15 boys racing in the J15 8+ and J16 4+, respectively. The 8+ successfully beat Dulwich’s C crew to make their way into the A final, and later finished in 6th place in a high class field. The 4+ raced a year group up due to event restrictions, and performed superbly to finish 3rd in their heat, and then made it through to the A final, where they also finished 3rd! A fantastic result considering that they were racing pupils a year older than them.
“The morning division was wrapped up by our Senior girls racing in WJ16 2x and WJ18 singles, respectively. Inga and Grace worked hard in the WJ16 2x to finish in 5th place, and picking up valuable lessons in the race. The girl singles of Pippa and Mollie raced well, finishing 4th and 5th in their category.
“As the temperatures rose and the planes taking off from City Airport started up, the afternoon division kicked off. The J15 girls’ quads raced first, finishing 5th and 6th in their final. Shout-out to Mia and Amelie in Year 9, who raced up in the Year 10 B boat and gained valuable experience in doing so.
“The Senior boys’ quad produced a smooth row but ran out of steam at the finish, narrowly losing 4th place to Westminster. The boys’ Year 9 Octo raced well and despite a blade breakage mid-race, they still finished in 2nd place in the final, which is a remarkable achievement! The girls’ WJ18 2x of Nell and Heather produced a gutsy row to finish 2nd in their final, despite multiple attacks from other crews. The final race of the day saw the girls’ WJ18 4x record a quick time, despite potentially not producing their finest row, finishing 4th in the final.
“Racing over 2,000-metres in 25-degrees heat is no mean feat, and I commend all of our rowers for giving it their all. Thank you, as ever, to all families and coaches for their support too.”
Good luck to everyone who is competing in the National Schools’ Regatta this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, May 24th, 25th and 26th!