Gloucester Veteran & Junior 2009 - 29 August 2009
Good win for Ben Eames in J16 Single Sculls
Ben Eames and Jake Wheeler represented the Club at Gloucester Veteran & Junior Regatta on Saturday 29th August, assisted and supported by Laura Wheeler, Ben’s mum and dad Sue and Paul, Richard & Jenny who towed the trailer and Ali, Mike & Dani. The Trent juniors had entered three events, racing together in J15 doubles, Jake racing in J15 singles and Ben entered in J16 singles.
With a massive entry, the regatta was scheduled to start at 8.15, with the Trent doubles first round being the third race of the day at 8.24. However, the laid back approach of the organisers meant that the first race didn’t come down until nearly 8.40 and was, in fact, the Trent / Upper Thames doubles heat. The Trent duo had a reasonable start but encountered the blades of a crew who were heading to the start but not quite tucked right into the bank. This resulted in a crab costing valuable seconds from which they never fully recovered, resulting in them being eliminated from the event.
Jake’s first heat in the J15 single sculls was the Club’s next race. Jake left the start down against his opposition from Ross RC. Despite a spurt as he passed the Trent supporters, there was not enough of the course left to catch up resulting in a loss by some two lengths.
Ben took to the water in his first heat a few minutes later and sculled strongly to beat his Bewl Bridge opposition convincingly. A Bristol City sculler was similarly despatched in the semi final, with Ben going on to meet Lovering from Dart Totnes in the final of the event. The two scullers were well matched and the race was head to head throughout the course. As the scullers approached the finish line Ben was seen to pick up and the finish bell has less than a second between the crews, but it was too close for supporters to be able to tell who had received the first bell. After a long delay the commentary finally announced the result to be a win for Trent by half a length.
Ben Eames in final of J16 1x
