The Long Beach Junior Crew Girl’s took Cincinnati by storm at the Junior Nationals. The girl’s eight (eight on board rowing one oar each) took the lead within the first 500 meters and finished in a time of 7:08. They finished second in their first heat bringing them to one of two final races. With the second fastest time overall, the girls then won their semi-final and went on to win the trophy. Way to go, girls!
In a recent post titled Long Beach’s Best Kept Secret, I wrote about what a fun and challenging sport crewing (rowing) is and gave some information about the Long Beach Junior Crew Summer Camp, the L.B. Rowing Assoc’s Learn to Row program and the Pete Archer Rowing Center located on the north side of the Marine Stadium in Long Beach.
Also in Cincinnati, were the Junior Crew boys for a 2,000 meter race in a quad (four boys rowing 2 oars each.) Considering the fact that the boy’s team had only been put together two weeks before the regionals, it is quite an accomplishment that they qualified for the Nationals. At the Nationals, the guys qualified for the petite finals and ended up in ninth place in the nation. Great job, guys!
Although these trained athletes make it look easy, to row competitively they must train for at least two hours a day five to six days per week. Their very dedicated coaches, Bill Bader and Alfredo Montenegro, have a lot to be proud of and deserve a lot of credit for urging these althletes on to become National Champions. Kudos to the coaches!
