Fantastic Sporting Achievements

Many of our students have been taking part in sporting activities during the summer holidays and weekends.  Here are just a few we have heard about:

Sam Machell (10Burrows) travelled to France to take part in The RS Feva World Championship 2025 hosted by The International RS Feva Class Association & Club Nautique Voile d’Aix les bains. The Championships were held in the picturesque thermal spa town of Aix-les-Bains, situated on the serene shores of Lake Bourget in Savoie.

Sam and his Helm Thomas arrived a few days early to start some pre-training on the lake with the GBR Team. The regatta started with two days of qualifying series with 168 boats split into 3 flights. The sailors faced varied conditions, beginning with a thrilling, windy start on Monday for the first race, followed by tricky winds that made setting a course a challenge. Tuesday, saw a short delay as they waited for the wind, which soon transformed into a delightful sailing. Five races were successfully completed in the qualifying rounds.

The qualifying series concluded, the gold, silver, and bronze Fleets took place over the following three days. Sam and Thomas came 8th overall in the qualifying series which got them into the Gold Fleet. They finished 8th overall in the Gold Fleet on the final day and finished top 10 Gold Fleet boat. A huge achievement for them. 

Niamh Clark-Lyons (11King) had an incredible summer of dance, qualifying for the All England Dance regionals, and being awarded the senior ballet award at the EDI summer intensive.  At the Bright Star festival Niamh was awarded the Adjudicators choice award for the most promising senior dancer (and most of the seniors are a year or two older than Niamh). She was also awarded the highest scoring ballet solo trophy and won her ballet, contemporary and classical improv sections! 

Olly Harrison (11Otter) has qualified for the World Final at the Penina Golf Resort in Portugal this November, as part of the Race to Woodhall Spa Golf Tournament, which started with over 500 junior competitors nationally.  Entry to this tournament was based on Olly being the most improved golfer in 2024 at Rowlands Castle.

Fraser Haining (8Ridgeway) was selected to cox (steer and motivate) an adult crew for The Monster of the Loch challenge, a large event involving 300 vessels racing the length of Loch Ness (21 miles).  The crew he completed this with are a competitive quad (four rowers, two oars each) aiming to do it in less than 3 hours.  The team did really well and completed the challenge, finishing 5th overall and 3rd in their category, out of 118 boats that started the race.  They took 2 hours, 47 minutes and 37 seconds to complete the 21 miles.

Molly Smithers (12King), Stan Wilkes (12Burrows) and Ben Stewart (11Andrewes) took part in the Super Series Triathlon Grand Final at Mallory Park. They all had a great race, Molly finished in 11th place, Ben finished in 24th & Stan finished in 28th place.

Molly was then invited to take part in the Youth & Junior mixed relay and had another great race.  Molly is part of the South East Academy and has had an exciting year being part of the Academy.

Joe Stewart (10Andrewes) was representing the South East in the IRC at Mallory Park and they finished 4th overall.  A great weekend of racing.

Congratulations to Thomas Bacon (11Story) for completing his RYA Competent Crew sailing exam in September. The exam was very intense, particularly with the wet, windy conditions, Thomas completed the three-day practical exam with a very strong pass and some fabulous feedback from our examiner saying “he feels Thomas has a great future ahead in the marine industry”.