The Mobjack Rowing Association wound up its winter training program with successful results at the 15th annual Hampton Erg Pull, an indoor rowing machine competition that was held on Saturday at Norfolk’s Waterside.

In the junior women’s lightweight category, Taylor Williams captured gold for the second week in a row, holding off close challenges from Brunett Madison of Great Bridge and Amelia Joly of Granby for about 1,700 meters of the 2000-meter race. In the last 300, Williams nipped Brunett by .9 second and Joly faded to 5.2 seconds behind the winning time of 8:04.2.

MRA lightweights Jamie Robins and Logan Howlett finished an improved 18th (8:48.2) and 22nd (8:57.5) out of 43 in the same event.

The MRA men also saw good results. In the open weight junior men’s event, Phillip Machen took a hard-won gold over Christchurch’s Walter Banfield. Throughout the race, the rowers could see each other’s current place and the distance that separated them for first and there were rarely more than 3-4 seconds difference between them. Machen’s strategy of banking a bit of a lead earlier in the piece gave him what he needed to net a time of 6:35.5 and hold off a final charge from Banfield which still left him .4 second short. The bronze went to Great Bridge racer Matt Carbaugh (6:41.5).

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