Leah Bracken Row’s 2 Gold

Tsawwassen student Leah Bracken grabbed Gold with the Shawnigan Lake School Junior Lightweight 4+ crew at the 2012 Canadian Secondary School Rowing Championships which were held in St. Catherine’s.

In her first year of competing for Shawnigan Lake School she has developed tremendous in her three years of actual rowing”,

Regardless of the fact she lives in Delta, Leah continued to push for success at a higher level.

To achieve this and reach the Canadian High School Rowing Championships Gold medal she looked outside Delta. Her overall development came from the assistance of the Shawnigan Lake School and the Burnaby Lake Rowing Club where she rows hen she is home.

Her Parents have mentioned that Leah and her brothers are hoping to see more of Delta’s youth rowing through the local high school programs and quite possibly be competing at the CSSRA and other rowing events, regardless of where there travels take them.

Given the success Leah has achieved in this great sport, maybe it’s time for the school system in the Province to look at other sports to help tomorrow’s future Olympic Athletes?

She stated that she started rowing “because my brothers did it and have been doing it ever since Grade 8.”

In the bow position for her crew, Bracken and her team qualified for the final with a first place finish in their heat followed by a close second finish by Branksome Hall School from Ontario in the semis.

They eventually went on to beat in the final leg of the race.

Coach Danielle Beare knew her crew had a good chance going into the final and stated “Our heat and semi time set us up to be in the medals if we raced well.

The plan was to be patient and focus on one race at a time. The girls were very mature and executed the race plan perfectly.”

The CSSRA is held annually the first weekend of June in St. Catherine’s at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta and is the largest high school regatta in Canada, and possibly North America.

The event is open to high school’s throughout North America with crews coming from the US, Mexico and even British Columbia.

Sportswave wishes her all the best for all future endeavours and no doubt we will be hearing more of Leah in years to come.

Photo taken at the Brentwood Regatta.