Last weekend the squad stayed close to home and raced at the Nottingham City Regatta. With events still being cancelled due to the weather, there was a larger than usual entry, with crews travelling up from Wallingford and Thames amongst other clubs.

Abby started the racing in the novice singles. This was Abby's first race, and although she didn't win, she had a good race and felt that she learnt a lot, predominantly that a monster grip is not the way to tackle a headwind.

Next down the track was the IM2 women's quad of Beth, Sarah, Ellie and Laura Champion who won their heat, and went on to dominate the final. This was Laura's first win for NRC, and Ellie's first ever win - celebrated with an involuntary dunk in the lake thanks to Sarah.

The Elite Lightweight women's singles race had both Yasmin and Nikki in, with Nikki winning, being followed by Yaz, with the rest of the field some way behind. Yasmin raced IM2 singles in the second division, where she had another good race coming 6th in the final, but was out powered by some of the bigger girls into the strong headwind. One of the closest races of the day was in the Elite singles, with Catherine, Lindsay and Louise all racing. Lindsay lead out of the blocks and built up a lead, but a strong second 1k from Cathers meant that they crossed the line together, only being split by a photo finish, with the win being awarded to Lindsay. Following close behind was Louise, making it a 1, 2, 3 for NRC.

Caitlin Boyland joined with another member of the senior womens squad to race in the IM3 doubles, where they came in third against some strong opposition. Caitlin is just coming back from injury so this is a great step in the right direction. Caitlin was a member of the Loughborough Talent ID programme, and has made the jump over to the High Performance group this year.Our newest member of the squad, Laura Champion, has made the move after a successful season last year at City of Bristol rowing club, and judging by the start of this summer season - their loss!

Following her strong performance at April trials, which she backed up with a 2k erg PB the next week, Laura Wheeler has been invited to train at Caversham with the senior team, and is currently training in a quad. This is a huge step towards her goal of racing at the World Championships in South Korea this summer, and we wish her all the best 'down south'. 

Our next competition will be the Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake, where we will be racing in singles, doubles, pairs, fours and quads - it will be a busy weekend!