Calpe machines at Chiclana

On Saturday the 18th of February Calpe Rowing Club took a small squad to test themselves in the Andalusian rowing machine championships. Calpe were invited to the event through their close contacts set up through years of friendly competition on the Andalusian circuit, although in an “out of competition” capacity, the Calpe rowers looked forward to testing themselves against the Andalusian clubs.
Jeremy King competing in the open male event over 2000m posted the fastest time in his event, clocking in 6 minutes and 23 seconds , he was just behind his closest opponent from club de Remo Guadalquivir as the last 250m approached, but Jeremy showed a brutal burst of power that drove him to finish with a lead of just under a second.
In the male U18 event Thomas Zammitt placed 4th out of 21 competitors in the tightest competition of the day that had the race commentator on his feet, where only 3 seconds separated 2nd and 5th place, Thomas posting a time of 6 minutes and 43 seconds over 2000m, a promising start for his first year in the under 18 category.
Calpe had three entries in the very competitive under 16 female category over 1500m, with all three Calpe rowers placing in the top half of the 39 competitor list.
Mika Zammit came in 15th with a time of 6mins 12 seconds, Siena Lee 6th with 5 minutes and 56 seconds and Sophie Lines a very impressive second place overall with a time of 5 minutes and 45 seconds. All three Calpe rowers will return to this same age category next year having shown their potential this year- a very exciting prospect!
Finally Calpe’s under 14s, comprising of Luke Zammit, Claudia Finn, Maddie Roberts and Katie Zammitt were given the hardest workload of the day, between them competing in three events in the space of a few hours, involving female team, medley team and individual events. Although the attritional model of the team events undertaken before the individual tests took their toll- Katie Zammitt placed 6th and Claudia Finn 11th in the female under 14 event over 1000m with a time of 4.04 for Katie and 4.17 for Claudia. Luke Zammitt placed 12th in the U14 male 1000m event in 3.52. The female team placed fifth and the medley team placed 6th overall.
The Calpe coaches were very pleased with the progression and commitment of the squad and the organisation and quality of the event in Chiclana and look forward to further progression with a busy schedule of races in Gibraltar and overseas coming up.