Following on from the first regatta of the season at Ryde, the baton was passed over to Shanklin Sandown Rowing Club for day 2 of the Isle of Wight regatta weekend on Sunday (14th May).
Shanklin seafront was a slight to behold on Sunday with hundreds of rowers, travelling club members and local spectators present. Being the home club, Shanklin entered a strong compliment of 3 Fours, 2 Pairs, 10 Single Scullers and Quad.
The first event of the day was for the J16 Mixed Quad of Scarlett Phelan, Rachael Debenham, Sophie Atkin, Mia Phelan – with cox Ethan Walters. The crew faced competition from fellow Island club Newport and Southampton’s Itchen Imperial. With both Rachael and Scarlett making their Shanklin debuts the crew did exceptionally well to finish 3rd.
The club would feature in all of the following 3 races as the events came thick and fast. Events 2 and 4 saw the club’s Men’s Novice Scullers take on the deteriorating 1600m course. In the first heat, Joe Robertson and Henry Mudge both had excellent starts and quickly put themselves at the front of the race. As they reached the turns Joe took control of the race, with Henry battling it out for third place. Joe held his nerve and sat on his lead to take an excellent win, despite Henry pushing to the line he narrowly and agonisingly missed out on a place in the final.
Jamie Gamble was then in the spotlight for the second heat. A lightning fast start saw Jamie take control of his race early on. Still in the leading group at the turns, Jamie had a solid turn and looked in good shape to earn place in the final. However on the return leg Jamie struggled with cramp his forearms and his place in the final cruelly slipped away from him.
In the final, Joe had a confident start and placed himself well amongst the finalists. Despite losing time due to a longer course into his turn, Joe had a flyer on the return leg that saw him take several lengths out the field and he deservedly took a fourth place rowing through Christchurch in the final 200m.
Slotting in between the Men’s Novice Scullers was the Ladies’ Junior Pair Final. After winning in a close race on Saturday, Daisy and Emily Faithfull were searching for home regatta victory. After a strong start from both the Shanklin pair and the Poole crew that had finished second the day before, it quickly became a 2-boat race. With both crews turning within a length of one another, the Shanklin girls held a narrow lead as they began the return leg. The race remained tight for the entirety of the row back to the finish, with Shanklin edging out Poole again by 2 lengths to take their second win of the weekend.
The Men’s Junior Four had earned a very strong third place finish the day before at Ryde and were hoping to close the gap on the leading crews from Bournemouth and Itchen. The crew featured Jamie Gamble, Henry Mudge, Matt Miselbach, Harry Miselbach and cox Ethan Walters. With a powerful start the crew put themselves up with the leaders early on. As the race reached the turns the crew had dropped off marginally and were sat in third place. A strong return leg saw them hold the gap as they took the final step on the podium.
Meanwhile the Men’s Senior Pair would head out for their heat a short while afterwards, hoping to carry the momentum of the club’s early success. In the heat, a powerful start saw the Alex Robertson and Joe Evans Murray take an early lead. Slowly easing their lead out further, the duo had a solid turn and despite a close race with Christchurch to the line, took the heat victory. In the final, Alex and Joe had another good start, putting themselves at the top of the race. In an extremely spread out race, the pair slipped away from the outside race leaders Christchurch and Itchen. A solid turn and return row saw them row away from the rest of the field and close the gap on second placed Itchen to only a couple of lengths by the finish, but Christchurch were run away winners in this event with a very good race.
After a jam packed day of racing that had seen at least 1 Shanklin boat out on the water for almost the entirety of the day, it was time for the final race with Ethan Walters and Riley Horrix facing a sculler from BTC in the Boys J16 Sculls final. Unphased by the traditional Shanklin regatta conditions, both Ethan and Riley had great starts and were quickly battling it out in the race lead. In arguably the closest finish of the day both boys came into the final 100m neck and neck. With one big final push it was Ethan who just managed to take the win over his Doubles partner.
Thanks has been given to all of the volunteers, Sandown & Shanklin Independent Lifeboat, Scott Gardner at Wight Waters and Newport Rowing Club for providing safety launches on the day, as well as Ed Blake/Ventnor Haven Fishery for providing the umpires boat.
