IT was hooray Henley for two city youngsters at the weekend as they secured places in the world's most famous and prestigious regatta.
Sam Tuck (15) and Ed Rippon (16), both members of Peterborough City Rowing Club, came through a tough qualifying session on the famous Thames course to win places at the 2009 Henley event.
Ironically they will now race against each other in the fi
rst round of the Fawley Challenge Cup – a quad event for under 19s – on Thursday.
This weekend the boys competed in different quad crews in a time trial, both qualifying with plenty to spare. Nine teams from 25 crews went through to join teams that had already won automatic invitations, including one with another of City's young stars, Tom Chung (16), who will race in a team from the world famous Leander Club.
Jack Hunt schoolboy Tuck competes with a Tideway Scullers team, while Rippon, of King's School, is in a composite crew which includes members of Leander and Bewl Bridge.
A fourth City member, James Fox (17), will also be in action at Henley this week. Fox became the first City rower to win an event at Henley when partnering clubmate Adam Neill and rowers from Leicester and Nottingham to victory in the Fawley Challenge Cup last year.
Unfortunately the Jack Hunt sixth former is now considered too strong for the under 19 event and will compete against men in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, a quad event.
