Ross Rowing Club’s juniors continued their impressive run of form with no less than seven medals from 10 events entered at the Blenheim Palace Junior Regatta on the weekend.The haul of medals was crowned by the Umpires’ award of the David Parnwell Memorial Trophy which is awarded to the club or school which demonstrates the highest standards of watermanship at the regatta. Ross Rowing Club has never before won this award and was the icing on the cake for the athletes and their coaches who had made the trip to Oxfordshire.

The majority of the young scullers from Ross started rowing only a few months ago in the Easter holidays, which makes the award of the watermanship trophy all the more remarkable. Gold medals were won by Annabel Pope, Violet Holbrow-Brooksbank, Katie Hermon, Yasmin Howe and Tom Gianessi (cox) in the WJ12 quad, Emily Hermon in the WJ13 single scull, and Imogen Seal & Ella Bardsley-Taylor in the WJ13 double scull. Josh Quan-Buchanan won silver in the J13 single scull, with Elic Wales picking up bronze in the same event. Charlie Pope, Tom Clatworthy, Oliver Leach, Harry Burden and Niamh Hickey (cox) won silver in the J12 quad, and the WJ13 quad of Emily Hermon, Niamh Hickey, Imogen Seal, Ella Bardsley-Taylor and Heidi Brodholt (cox) won a bronze medal in the WJ13 quad.

Coaches Richard Leach and Erica Hermon were overwhelmed with the way these young athletes performed on the day. Richard commented: “I could not have been more proud of these young people. They have been a real credit to the club and themselves.” The Ross junior rowers travel next to the Peterborough Junior Championships in two weeks’ time which will again provide the opportunity for them to pit themselves against some of the best young crews in the country.