Scarlett Represents GB for First Time

Henley Rowing Club’s Scarlett Hyde represented Great Britain in the annual J16 GB v France match held at the London Regatta Centre last weekend.

Scarlett aged 16 has been rowing since 2021 at Henley Rowing Club.  This year she was in the winning Henley RC J16 8+ crew at the National Schools Regatta and raced in Henley Royal Regatta in the Prince Phillip Challenge Trophy (Student 8+).

She originally trialled for the U19 GB team in November and February but decided to pull out as most of the rowers were a year older than her and it was “very stressful”.  She was then invited to trial for the GB U16 on 29 June.  In the morning, she trialled in an eight boat and didn’t get selected but in the afternoon won the side-by-side final in the single sculls which meant she qualified for this race.  Scarlett explains, “When I crossed the finish, I didn’t realise I had won as it was very close, and I thought the other girl had won.  When I rowed back and my coach gave me thumbs up, I thought I must have won. I was really happy to obviously qualify; I was a sad I wasn’t going with my friends in the composite eight but really excited to have the opportunity.”

In 30 degree heat, Scarlett competed in the single scull race in a very close race over 15oomm and missed out on a win by a second.  Scarlett said, “The French girl who was really lovely held me off the start and for the next 250m and then I was ahead at 1km, but she started to build a bit earlier than me to the finish and just beat me to the line.  The hardest part was getting there.  It was a really good race, and we were really well matched.”

Looking to the future, Scarlett will look to trial for the U19s again this year.  Now she just finished training and is on a break for the summer before she hopes to start at Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School to study A Levels in September.

The match saw both teams won seven races each, but GB secured the top spot due to there being a greater number of individual athletes who achieved victory across those races.