Olivia’s News category
Olivia punches above her weight
Grovelands has agreed to sponsor Olivia Carnegie-Brown during 2010/11 to help Olivia further her international rowing career. Olivia has already had considerable success – she won gold in the women’s coxless four and bronze in the coxless pair at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival in 2009. She also recently won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Lincolnshire.
We are massively excited for the year ahead – check out Olivia’s News to find out more!
Here’s Olivia’s latest update:
“Hello again!”
“The weekend is finally over and my pairs partner and I came 7th overall and top out of the under 23 girls!!
“We had to race a time trial one by one down one lane on the Saturday morning and from that we all got a ranking. We were 7th. That meant we had been put into the A/B semi final against all the Olympic/senior women.
“We had to come top 3 to get into the A final but unfortunately the senior women were just too strong and were ahead from the start! However we raced in the B final on Sunday against all the other under 23 girls and won by a convincing margin.
“It was a shame we didn’t manage to break into the group of 6 senior boats but that is something to work on over the next few years.
“I’ve been pleased with my performances this year at trials. I’ve moved on each month to come out on top at the one that counts – final trials.
“Depending on which boats they select for the world championships in Amsterdam I hope to feature as one of the key athletes and hopefully move on another step in the next couple of months to gold medal standard!
“Speak to you soon!”
Olivia
Olivia hits her Personal Best!
Grovelands has agreed to sponsor Olivia Carnegie-Brown during 2010/11 to help Olivia further her International Rowing Career. Olivia has already had considerable success – she won gold in the women’s coxless four and bronze in the coxless pair at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival in 2009. She also recently won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Lincolnshire. We are massively excited for the year ahead!
Olivia says:
“Hi Grovelands!
“On the 26th and 27th March was another training weekend for a selected group of Under 23 athletes where we had to do the dreaded 2km ergo test- the last one of the year! I got a massive 7 second PB which is great for me to prove that the training I’ve been doing since Christmas has moved me on so well. I’m now very close to breaking 7 minutes so although I got a PB I was still annoyed with myself as I know I could have got down into 6 minutes 50 something. Maybe next time!!
“The next day we trained in our pairs that we are going to final trials in and we got to race the other pairs that have been training together too so that we can measure our speed against each other. Caragh and I are moving on well together – we are producing some fast times however we both know that there is a lot we can change to make the fast times something a bit more special. We dont want to be just beating other Under 23 pairs but we also want to be beating some of the over 23 pairs and even pushing up into the senior Olympic girls pairs! We have 3 weeks now to work as hard as we can on it until final trials when we get our last chance to produce, hopefully, an outstanding performance.
“So that brings you nicely/rambled up to date with where I am and what I’m doing! I dont finish uni until the 8th for the Easter break and then we get two weeks off for Easter until we are back for exams. It’s manic the whole time now until the end of May with Final Trials, revision, Exams and more selections, hopefully to form crews and to start training for the World Championships!
“Wish me luck!”
Olivia’s big race
Grovelands has agreed to sponsor Olivia Carnegie-Brown during 2010/11 to help Olivia further her International Rowing Career. Olivia has already had considerable success – she won gold in the women’s coxless four and bronze in the coxless pair at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival in 2009. She also recently won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Lincolnshire. We are massively excited for the year ahead!
Olivia says:
“Hi Grovelands!”
“A few weeks ago was the big race up in London on the tideway – Women’s Head of the River. We raced from Chiswick to Putney, which is the opposite to what the boat race was last weekend, but exactly the same distance. We had previously been rowing with a few girls from other rowing clubs who train alone but race with us in the 8+.
“However we decided to race a full Oxford Brookes crew because we thought that we had a strong enough core to have a competitive University crew. Despite the coaches not agreeing with us, we went ahead and raced as an Oxford Brookes University crew (which means every member of the 8+ has to be enrolled as a Brookes student). We were set at 16th which is where they finished last year out of 303 other crews.
“We went off behind a club called Molesey, from London and ahead of Cambridge who were our main competition to try and win the University category. The whole way down we were on Molesey’s tail. We had caught up with them, but just didnt have enough to overtake which was annoying, but we also had Cambridge in our sights behind us, and the whole way down the gap stayed very consistent.
“We raced a really good, solid race. Every member of the crew was 100% switched on and the crew responded so well to the calls from the cox! By the end of the day the results finally came out and we had come 7th out of 303, and won the University Pennant (category) to Cambridge by 8 seconds! We were only 2 seconds away from 5th place. The crews ahead of us that had won the whole thing and the elite Pennant all had Olympic athletes in them and were a good margin ahead of the rest of us but 7th was a fantastic achievement for us! There is a presentation/sit down meal this Thursday to be awarded with medals and photographs!”
“More news to come next week!”
Read Olivia’s blog – our international rower!
Grovelands has agreed to sponsor Olivia Carnegie-Brown during 2010/11 to help Olivia further her International Rowing Career. Olivia has already had considerable success – she won gold in the women’s coxless four and bronze in the coxless pair at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival in 2009. She also recently won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Lincolnshire. We are massively excited for the year ahead!
Olivia says:
“Hello Grovelands – how are you all? I’ve got lots of good news to share!”
“We last spoke at the end of Feb so since then I’ve been up to Nottingham for a selected Under 23 training weekend where they raced the top 6 girls together so that they have a ranking of speed order. Myself and another girl from Reading uni (Caragh) came out on top and from those races have been invited to row in a pair (2-) together at Final Trials that are held on the 16th and 17th April!
“After that weekend I had a few exams to do and then got back into a routine again with training. The training has been going really well – I’ve been working consistently at my endurance pace and moving on well at the work I’ve been doing at higher intensities, like 20 mins flat out every Monday…
“I raced for Oxford Brookes in an 8+ at Reading University Head of the River race on the 12th March where we won the first division and came 2nd in the next division. This was a fantastic result – especially considering we had a few injuries and illnesses in the crew!
“Lots more news coming later in the week!”
Rowing update from Olivia
I’m really busy revising for my end of semester exams at the end of December. It’s so frustrating because most people have finished their exams and I haven’t even started mine yet!
The other day I raced for Oxford Brookes in an 8+. We raced on our home stretch of the river at Wallingford and won the first division which was a success as some people in our boat had never won anything before since they began rowing. We were all given tankards with glass bottoms featuring the emblem of Wallingford, which are common prizes at this time of year instead of medals. The trials that were meant to be held this weekend in Boston have been cancelled due to the snow forecast so instead we’re having to do 5km tests on the rowing machine.
I’ve got an eventful festive period coming up. I’m hoping to try out a new set of blades over the Christmas holidays and I’ve also been invited to a GB training camp because of my top performance at the last set of trials. I’m also looking to organise a new kit for myself featuring the Grovelands logo. In the meantime, I’m still training each day and consistently performing with a few personal bests on the rowing machine.
- Olivia Carnegie-Brown
Win for Elite W4- from Oxford Brookes
Since meeting the team at Grovelands at the beginning of the month, I’ve been successfully combining my studies and training each day back in Oxford as part of the Oxford Brookes University Boat Club. We have a training programme each week that consists of gym work (rowing machines, weights, core and running) and water work on the river where we get to row in the crews we’ll race in.
I’ve been training with the Brookes squad now for about two months and I’m loving it. There is a great atmosphere and everyone is really motivated. Since the start of the season I’ve completed my first set of Great Britain Trials in Boston, Lincolnshire. In my single scull I came 6th overall and 1st out of the U23 category which is an encouraging start to the year! The next trial takes place on 18th December so fingers crossed.
In the crew pictured (w4-) we’ve raced at Upper Thames Head, Henley, which we won, and also at Fuller’s Fours Head of the River, London, where we raced elite and won by 15 seconds over 4 1/2 miles (approx 20 mins). This is one of the top winter races to win at elite level so another encouraging result for the season.
W4- Crew:
Stroke – Olivia Carnegie-Brown (nearest)
3 – Elizabeth Cottrell
2 – Katherine Douglass
Bow – Tina Thomas (furthest)
We’ve now moved into boats with 8 people (8+) and will be racing in Bristol next weekend and Wallingford the weekend after. The winter races are called head races, are usually a minimum of 3km and crews set off 1 by 1, whereas in the summer the standard distance is 2km and the crews race side by side.
I’m off to Durham this weekend on a training camp and will report back after the next few events – hopefully with some positive feedback!
- Olivia Carnegie-Brown
Grovelands sponsors Olivia
Grovelands has agreed to sponsor Olivia Carnegie-Brown during 2010/11 to help Olivia further her International Rowing Career. Olivia has already had considerable success: she won gold in the women’s coxless four and bronze in the coxless pair at the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival in 2009. She also recently won a silver medal in the Junior World Championships in Lincolnshire.
Olivia now aims to make it to the Olympic Games in 2016 (2012 if things go amazingly well).
The season has now started with trials last weekend… Olivia won the Under 23 category!!! and came 6th out of the seniors too (excluding the team that are racing in NZL).
We are massively excited for the year ahead!!
- Mark Davies