Leande r New s Summer 2014 www. leander. co.uk Leander News The official newsletter of Leander Club is published twice yearly, in late Spring and Autumn Articles, photographs and ideas, as well as Editor: Ivor Lloyd news of our Members, are always welcome Contributors: Paul Budd, Tony Clarke, Chris Dalley, Debbie and should be addressed to: Flood, Sara du Luart, Robert Treharne Jones, Pippa The Press Office, Leander Club, Whittaker and Mike Willoughby Henley-on-Thames RG9 2LP Cover photo: Charles Cousins, a world bronze medallist last E: [email protected] year in the GB quad, took a second successive victory in GB Trials last April. Photo: Robert Treharne Jones Henley Royal Regatta The climax to the domestic rowing calendar sees all our academy, each with only a few months’ rowing crews in preparation for Henley Royal Regatta, where experience under their belt, can relish the chance to our lead boat is looking for a successful defence of the compete on home water. Prince of Wales Challenge Cup. Leander’s presence at Henley will be boosted by the Sholto Carnegie, Angus Groom, Seb Devereux and club return to their clubs of the GB international squad. vice-captain Jack Beaumont have an average age of Many of the club’s world and Olympic champions will just 20, yet have proven themselves faster than other, be on show, using the chance to race in front of a more senior, crews. Together the quad are looking to supportive Henley crowd whose last opportunity may record an unprecedented fifth successive win in the have been during the golden moments of London 2012. Prince of Wales – the intermediate status event for club quad sculls. Meanwhile many of those more senior scullers have made the switch to sweep to contest the Visitors’ Challenge Cup, the intermediate event for coxless fours. The Leander Ladies’ Plate eight is also relishing the prospect of racing at Henley, where the club is also hoping to boat two junior quads in the Fawley Challenge Cup, reflecting the recent success of the Club in promoting its Under-18 athletes. This year’s Henley marks a welcome return to the Regatta by Leander in the Thames Challenge Cup, The young Leander line-up in the Prince of Wales where younger members of the Club’s development Challenge Cup Page 2 National Schools Regatta Despite not winning gold Leander juniors had their most successful medal haul ever at National Schools Regatta last month, returning home with two silver medals and a bronze. Never before had Leander won more than one medal at the event, which is hosted at the National Water Sports Centre, Nottingham, where more than 4,000 young athletes raced over three days of intense competition. “It was a really successful regatta, and I’m very pleased that we won medals, across three separate age ranges, despite having w o l g U such a small squad of juniors” said Livinia Cowell-Sherriff, Talent y a s d n Identification Coach at Leander. i L f o y s Part of Livinia’s role involves visiting local non-rowing schools, e t r u o c in conjunction with the Heads of PE, and recruiting potential e g a m athletes, who may have enjoyed success in other sports but can I then be taught to row. Top: Cameron Forsythe and Tom Mortimer won silver in the J16 All of the Leander athletes at National Schools came from double sculls. Right: Harry Uglow took bronze in J17 single sculls. non-rowing schools, reflecting the club’s success in bringing Left: Leander’s Harry Leask won the silver medal in new blood into our sport. championship single sculls Turkey Sculls A traditional Leander pre-Christmas event, the Turkey Sculls offers a welcome respite from the long distance winter training schedule and is raced in scratch quads over a 200m upstream course to the clubhouse. The winners are awarded turkeys, courtesy of the Copas Partnership, long-term sponsors of the event, and our picture shows Tom Copas handing out prizes to the 2013 winners (left to right): John Collins, Adam Neill, Matthew Tatlock, James Lambton-Heys. For John Collins this was a special year, marking his third successive win in the event, which was witnessed by his father, Philip Collins, who had driven over from his home in Twickenham. “We rely on John to provide us with our Christmas dinner” joked Philip afterwards. Page 3 www. leander. co.uk Captain’s Report Despite prolonged winter flooding causing time off the river, our athletes’ preparation for the new season has continued unabated, as Club captain Debbie Flood reports . At the end of last year I described an immensely successful season of records broken and history being made, reflected in the number of wins and successes earned by our athletes. In fact 2013 was always going to be a Leander I, with four hard year to follow, but of course the world champions athletes have taken it on and risen to on board, shoots Hammersmith that challenge. Bridge during Winter brought the floods, and so the this year’s Tideway Head Club was surrounded with sandbags, roads were waterlogged and the rivers too dangerous to row. Our athletes thus migrated to the (slightly less flooded) waters of Dorney Lake to continue their water-work and ensure that no mileage was missed. The dynamics of both new and familiar faces at the club has kept that enthusiasm pushing through the challenges of the winter, both in the gym and on the water, and has meant that we have emerged strongly for 2014. The weather conditions continued to disrupt the Eights Head, where only the first few crews were timed before the event was cancelled. But, of the 60 or so timed crews, Leander had four in the top eight, showing the depth of Vicky Thornley’s win meant a clean sweep for Leander in openweight Page 4 strength coming through the club. Senior GB trials this year saw a record 35 Leander athletes making the top twelve in their event - a fantastic achievement which shows great promise so early in this Olympic cycle. The photo feature on pages 10-11 describes our success but particular congratulations must go to Charles Cousins retaining his title in the men’s single, Vicky Thornley winning the women’s single, Jamie Kirkwood trumping the opposition in lightweight men’s singles and Alex e k r a l C Gregory winning the pairs with Mo Sbihi y n o T f of Molesey. Showing a great step up o y s e t r from last year we also had the four u o c e g highest ranked U23 athletes in singles, a m with Jack Beaumont notably coming I fifth in the A final. Leander wins in Ghent included lightweights Nick Buckle and Donald Evans taking gold in heavyweight pairs! Our Junior squad is also expanding and, despite the winter disruptions, the I’m pleased to report that Henley cheer on our GB stars as they take on juniors were out in force in the racing Royal Regatta will once again see our the world’s best in some great racing offered at local Heads, where they internationals competing on home and close finishes. featured in various quads, doubles and waters, giving everyone the chance to singles, from Novice, IM3, J16 and J18 Crews. Two quads were put out at the Junior Oarsport Head, finishing fourth, and a scratch quad finishing in 24th place. This was followed later in the year by the Start Regatta, where our boys with just 6 – 12 months rowing experience raced in very challenging conditions, yet made the C, D and E finals in their singles. The whole club is now well into the s e n racing season, having tested crews at o J e n r both Wallingford and Ghent Regattas. a h e r T t Leander won the Victor Ludorum in r e b o R Ghent, but after wins and near-misses f o y s e t at both regattas there’s plenty to work r u o c s on as the Club looks forward in the e g a m countdown to Henley. I Jamie Kirkwood dominated the lightweight men’s singles at GB trials Page 5 www. leander. co.uk Training Camp Diary Despite the obvious attractions of Henley Reach our athletes can find it a little tedious rowing on the same water several times a day. Our January training camp is therefore a chance to shake off the winter blues and head south to the sun, although the French town of Temple sur Lot offered rather mixed weather, as Leander athlete Pippa Whittaker describes. Day 1 : The first day was actually a day off training, as we Lot. We were spoilt with flat water and sunshine! A bit of a break travelled to our new venue. Much to Banksie’s surprise everyone gave us time in to pop to Temple sur Lot’s café for a café au lait managed to turn up with their own ticket and make it to France! and some chocolat before our final water session. Day 2 : Having arrived late in the evening the previous day, we Day 7 : Time for the second assessment of the camp, a 7,000 were eager to see the river. However, it took until about midday to metre time trial. Due to the demands the training camp was even get a glimpse of the other bank. Luckily once the fog burnt having on the athletes’ bodies they ended up sleeping all off, we found ourselves on a beautiful, flat river, all to ourselves afternoon straight through to the morning! for a hard days training! Day 8 : After seven days of beautiful weather, the conditions Day 3 : Perfectly calm water gave us all the chance to practice changed, and the rain started to come.