GB France Match at Cardiff Bay

 

Klara Weaver receives the match trophy watched by GB team manager CD Riches, right.

Nick Hartland’s full report with photos will appear in the August issue of Rowing & Regatta.  The following is a brief synopsis from Nick’s account of the action at the 29th Anglo-French match held on a windswept Cardiff Bay. 

Great Britain’s U16s beat France by nine races to four, bringing the trophy back home after two successive defeats.  Nick writes that racing in Wales was a first for GB crews and a baptism of fire for the French, who admitted: "We never race on water like that." The conditions meant that most of the racing had to be held over a shortened 750m course.  

GB’s girls’ 8 won by a third of a length win after the umpires dispensed with the 1500m stake boat start in the crosswind.

French single sculler, Alberic Cormerais, hit back rowing down Leander’s Luke Moon by three-quarters of a length.

Maidenhead’s Gabbie Watson and Katie Ride finished 3 lengths clear in the girls’ doubles, followed by a 4 lengths win in boys’ quads, a 1 length win for the boys’ coxless four and a  length and a quarter verdict in girls’ singles for Latymer’s Klara Weaver.

GB’s boys’ double suffered equipment failure, and it was soon 5-4 as Les Bleus snatched the boys’ fours.

Lady Eleanor Holles girls’ four squeezed home by a quarter length and Hampton’s Jack Walker and Oleg Isaev secured team victory in boys’ pairs by 1 length.

Haberdashers’ Freddie Madler and Jo Hancock seized on their opponents’ collision with a marker buoy to romp home by 5 lengths in their pairs race, tying up a 5-1 win in the girls’ competition.

GB’s boys had to wait for the last race to secure their victory, the eight holding off France by a canvas for a 4-3 win.

Our thanks to Nick Hartland.