Hereford Rowing Club’s Jamie Coombes is celebrating some outstanding national success.
At the Bewdley Regatta Jamie and Louis Paterson took silver in the final of U23 doubles behind Newcastle University. The success led to Jamie being picked for the England team at the Home Countries Regatta in Ireland, while Louis was picked to race for Wales.
Jamie went on to win in the England quad. He was rowing in the 2-seat and helped the English crew to win with a very impressive time of 6:05, about five seconds in front of Ireland who in turn were five seconds in front of Wales.
A spokesman said: “It is not the first time rowers from Hereford have represented England but the club is extremely proud to have such a promising athlete amongst its ranks who can inspire future rowers. It shows hard work and training dedication can pay off. Well done Jamie.”
Jamie, who has also been training with a composite crew, proudly represented his club along with his Monmouth crewmates to win a gold medal at the national championships in Strathclyde in July.
Having not qualified for Henley (they were the first crew “outside” of the qualifying times), the quad scullers Alex Butler, Tom Penny and Louis Paterson along with Jamie and coach John Griffiths, made up for the disappointment by beating crews that featured at Henley.
In a superb example of front running in the six-boat final in Glasgow, they grabbed an early lead and held off all challenges to win by a length from the Welsh national crew in six minutes 20 seconds, with top rowing universities Newcastle and Bath behind, plus Leander and the Lea RC.
At Ironbridge Regatta at the end of June, there were wins for Stephen Griffiths in the J15 single scull on the 1000m downstream course, then the following day on the 500m downstream course, former junior members Charlie Stewart and Kate Tatchell (home from Kent University for the summer) teamed back up to re-discover their old form to win the women’s senior double sculls.
In early July, the club was well represented at Llandaff where another returning student, Holly Airbright, represented her home club to win the IM3 single scull on the 1000m course. The following day and a status higher, she won the IM2 single scull on the 500m downstream course.
She then joined Stephen Griffiths, adding to his winning streak with another excellent performance in the J15 single scull event. There were also wins for fellow juniors Ed Rees and Charlie Phillips in the J14 double sculls and also for Dan Hart and James Ford in the senior men’s IM2 double sculls.