Junior National Team Trials

For 15 athletes and two coaches, the weekend was off to a good start last Friday. After third block, we stepped out on the rest of the school day and made our way over to Vancouver. There, we headed to Burnaby Lake, where we took part in Rowing Canada’s Western Assessment Session. Junior rowers from all over BC showed up to compare themselves and prepare for Junior National Team trials in June. After a little bit of boat preparation on Friday, we all went straight to bed to be well rested for an 8am start on Saturday.  On Saturday, one by one, pairs and singles made their way down the race course in a time trial. Everybody was looking to post the fastest time possible in order to qualify for the best final possible. Most our athletes qualified for the A finals and everybody raced again a couple hours later to earn their way into the top matrix. In howling winds, biting cold, and freezing rain, we ventured up to the start line to line up for a simple 5x1000m pair matrix. After some atrocious starts and brutal finishes, a ranking of the top ten sweep rowers in BC had been established. On Sunday, the top-ranked four was filled with three Brentwood athletes, Peter L, Phil K, and Riley T as well as lonesome Vic City rower Liam K. The next top eight also included Brentwood rowers Jacob P and Logan P. Lion T trialled in the single as he is German and can’t qualify for any Canadian crews. All boats achieved terrific results, with the Four coming out on top. While the men’s sweepers were trialling, the women’s sweep and men’s sculls section went about their matrix. Aidan W qualified for the top quad, and Kate LW and Tasmin W made it into a Brentwood/Vic City Four. Both these boats, together with another men’s eight including Emma H, Oliver W, Lion T, Liam C & Benett L raced down the course at the end of the day, all sporting fantastic times. Extremely tired yet feeling very accomplished, everybody took away valuable lessons from the weekend and is a lot more prepared for when Junior National Team Trials roll around in June. Emma H, Allard ‘18