The Coronation Regatta and Nottingham Sprint 2013

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation, a 1000m regatta held on the Thames in the grounds of  Windsor Castle was organised. This was a one-off regatta, with special medals commissioned to celebrate the occasion. This event was perfect as a warm up for Henley Women's this weekend with side by side racing against the stream. It also made a nice change from the sterile environment of multi-lane racing - it's always more exciting when your opposition start rowing at you!

The newly formed quad of Lindsay, Catherine, Sarah and Beth raced in both Senior and Elite quads. With a by through the first round, the quad raced Molesey, who will also be racing at Henley Women's, and beat them by half a length. In Elite quads, for the Herbert Challenge Cup, despite some creative steering from the Eton crew pushing the Nottingham crew out of the racing lane the girls maintained a cool head and executed a powerful push to take the lead to the finish.

Due to illness the IM1 double of Ellie and Laura had to withdraw, leaving Pippa and Nikki to contest the elite double sculls. The girls had a straight final against 2012 World University gold medallists. With both girls racing their singles for Henley Women's, this race was mainly to get used to racing the shorter distance on the river. Despite struggling a little with the wind blowing the boats across the river, the girls managed to hold off a strong surge to the finish by Wallingford to win the Gooch Challenge Cup.

The next day, Catherine, Lindsay and Nikki were pitted against each other at the Nottingham Sprint regatta in the elite singles, raced over 750m from suspension bridge to the buttress just past the landing stages. Nikki and Lindsay raced first, with Nikki maintaining a narrow lead through Trent Bridge, to win by half a length. Nikki met Catherine in the final, and went on to win by 2 and a half lengths.