The Peterborough Junior championships took place on Saturday, where J13, J14 and J15 crews travelled from as far as Yarm and Manchester to compete over Peterborough’s one kilometre rowing lake. Despite the tough conditions with the heat and the water full of weed, the Peterborough juniors did extremely well with 13 crews progressing to the final, and 11 of the crews medalling.
The J14 quads had a 14 second lead in their finals, starting with the Open J14 coxed quad of Daniel Armstrong, Tom Calver, Bert Papworth, Lucas Niklasson and cox Sophie Bicknell who were 14 seconds ahead of Kingston Grammar school, then the women’s j14 coxed quad of Georgie Vassiliades, Lily Mae Allen, Esme Mcintyre, Izzy Jackson, Cox Emma Calver who were 14 seconds ahead of Nottingham Girls High school.
Many of these J14 athletes also went on to win a second medal in their other events, including Tom Calver who won gold in the J14 singles band 2 singles, Daniel Armstrong who won bronze in the J14 band 1 singles and Lucas Niklasson who joined Joe Beesley to achieve bronze in the J14 doubles. Isobel Prothero joined Freya Woodall to also achieve a bronze medal in the Women’s J15 doubles.
Another double medallist from the event was Grace Niklasson who achieved Gold in the Women’s J14 Band 2 singles. She crossed the line ahead of Lydia Hilton in silver position, with a time that would’ve been top of the Band 1 doubles in her age category. She then joined forces with Hilton to win a second gold in the Women’s J14 doubles, where they effortlessly crossed the line 18 seconds ahead of Sudbury in second.
The remaining medalists of the day were the super singles of Nell Papworth who was just 3 seconds short of the Gold, and Joe Beesley who comfortably finished his race 14 seconds ahead of Bronze.