Loughborough Boat Club
The
day of Newark Junior Head Race dawned overcast and cold. But it was dry, and
with only a light breeze, conditions were good for the long distance junior-only
rowing time trial held annually on the Trent.
Under
strict instructions from their coach to ‘make it look good’, Loughborough
Boat Club’s four young athletes pushed off from the base of Newark Rowing Club
to queue with their opponents 2500m upstream for the start of the morning’s
race.
All
four scullers put in a good show with full points from their supporters for both
style and effort. Jakob Melchior came a commendable second in the J18 Single
Sculls and despite having only just recovered from illness was only 12 seconds
off the winner. Chris Morris, possibly the youngest of the J18s competing, was
also on the pace in the Single Sculls, and Matt Day and Tom Lange gave an
excellent demonstration of teamwork and technique in the J16 Double Scull to
finish equal second to much larger opponents - showing that you don’t have to
be heavyweight to get a good result.
But
it was the afternoon race which provided Loughborough Boat Club’s first win of
the year, with Matt and Tom again teaming up, this time in the J16 Coxless Pairs
- one of the most technically difficult of all rowing events. Matt described the
race - ‘..at half way everything just clicked’ - and with both athletes
being really happy with their performance they outclassed second-placed