Rowing - Ball Cup South 2025

Ball Cup South 2025
On Sunday 11 May, students from The Langley Academy raced at the Ball Cup South at Dorney Lake. The weather was hot, but conditions were windy, making rowing tricky for everyone.
After a fast start in the WJ14.4x+ (Sanjana, Zahra, Klaudia, Grace, cox Yuvraj), the crew had a boat-stopping crab, letting other crews pass them. They then found themselves in a head-to-head battle with Canford School’s C crew, whom they beat. Sanjana from Year 8 was rowing up a year to complete the Year 9 crew.

In the next division, Tomasz described his scull in the OpJ15.1x as “if this had been a training session on my own, I would have been very pleased with my row, but seeing where the other boys were in relation to me meant I wasn’t pleased”. This realisation of how much faster the opponents are is important in identifying how much improvement is needed (very much like mock exam results!)

Tomasz then joined up with Ryan to race in OpJ15.2x. Yuvraj went into the OpJ14.1x, finishing 4 seconds behind Charlie, who was sculling for Dorney Boat Club. The Year 8 and 9 girls split up into two doubles. The 24 entries were divided into 2 separate groups, our girls being placed in different groups. Klaudia and Sanjana finished 11th in their group.

Despite another fast start for Zahra and Grace, sculling the best that Dorney coach Hannah had ever seen, they struggled with the wind and dropped back to finish 10th in their group.

With the fastest 6 progressing through to the finals, none of our crews got to race a second time.

The rowers will be racing again at Reading Sprint Regatta on Sunday 15 June, followed by Egham Regatta two Sundays later. The few available on Sunday 13 July will race at Kingston Borough Regatta, whilst the Year 9s will be on their DofE expedition.