Staying closer to home, the Ross Rowing Club juniors headed to Gloucester Rowing Club recently to take part in their Autumn Head on the Sharpness canal, which possesses one of the longest stretches of unlocked water in the country and, as such, attracted many large clubs and university crews.

This was the first event for four juniors, Emma Smith, Gracie Jones (the youngest member at 12), Jack Rees-Elford and Zac Goodman, whose initial experience of rowing was only in the summer when they joined the club’s junior summer camp.

They certainly gave no indication of their novice status over the 1750m course. There was success amongst the more experienced rowers too with wins in all the women’s junior single scull events for 13, 14, 15 and 16 year olds.

Annabel Pope claimed the win in the 13-year-old category while Yasmin Howe won the women’s junior single scull in the 14 and then the 15-year-old events, all over a distance of 1750m.

Meanwhile, older juniors competed over a gruelling distance of 5000m. Heidi Brodholt won her women’s junior single scull event for 16-year-olds by an impressive 39 seconds. Over the same distance, Katie Smith, Abbie Price, Elsa Sykes and Lucy Burden, coxed by Ella Bardsley-Taylor, won their women’s coxed four event.

An outstanding result given that most of these girls have only very recently been introduced to sweep oar rowing, one oar each instead of sculling where you have two.

If you are interested, the club runs a ‘discover rowing’ programme. Email clubsecretary@ross rowingclub.co.uk.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.