With 4 trailers loaded, the club arrived en masse to Boston Rowing Club for their head race. First up we had our elite scullers racing over the full 5k course. With results on a live feed, we were quick to find out that Laura had won, followed by Caitlin Boyland and Katie Bartlett, giving us the 1,2,3 in some mild conditions.

After a tight turn around between divisions, Fleur and Annie boated to race a status up in IM3 doubles. After a solid row, they came in over a minute ahead of their opposition, in a very competitive time for the higher status doubles.

In the third division it was wins for the Rosie's, with Rosie Taylor winning IM3 singles, and Rosie Wilkins winning IM1 singles, in her second race of the day.

Overall a great day in Boston. Thank you to Boston for once again putting on a well run race. A lot of the squad will be returning in a few weeks for the February GB Rowing Team assessment, before moving in to the 8+ for WEHoRR.

It has been a busy few weeks, with things only just beginning to settle back down. The beginning of the month saw our senior athletes head of to the first GB assessment weekend. The first day started well, with PBs coming from Rosie Wilkins, Caitlin and Kat, with Kirstie just 0.1 seconds off her PB. All 4 athletes, as well as Katie Bartlett comfortably made the required erg standard to compete on the water the following day, where all girls had solid rows, with Katie heading the Nottingham contingent.
Back in Nottingham, our development squad were competing at the BUCS indoor erg series. For Annie, Fleur and Grace this was their first 2k indoor competition, with all gaining PBs, and Annie taking a massive 11 seconds off her PB to win silver. Our novices all handled the competition environment well, coming away with a win in the beginner event and some promising performances all round. On Sunday, Grace, Annie and Fleur were back in action, joined by Carly, to race novice singles at the Nottingham Autumn Head. Held in foggy but calm conditions, Annie continued her success, winning the event by over 10 seconds. For all this was a great learning experience. Rosie Taylor and Kellie were also racing over the longer 5450m course in the first division, putting down some good performances.

Last weekend, in some blustery conditions, our intrepid IM1 4x took to the tideway to race the Fours Head of the River. The quad of Kat, Caitlin, Wilks and Kirstie weaved through numerous crews to finish 3rd in their division, and 8th womens crew overall, a great performance, and one to build on leading up to the 8s head in March.

Until next time

This must be one of the busiest weekends for the squad, with our senior athletes off to GB trials and our development squad racing at BUCS indoors and the Nottingham Autumn Head. Caitlin, Wilks, Katie, Kirstie and Kat will all be testing themselves against the rest of the country, including current World Championship medallists at the first assessment for GB rowing team candidates, first with a 2k ergo test, followed by a 5km water trial in singles on the Sunday. Georgina and Laura are both sitting out this weekend whilst they recover from a recent bout of illness.

The development group are racing at BUCS indoors on Saturday. This is a regional competition, with results then collated nationally to decide the top 4 athletes in the country on the rowing machine. Racing is held over 1000m for beginners, and 2000m for the girls who have been rowing for more than a year. For most this is their first taste of rowing competition, and all are looking forward to seeing how they compare to their competition.

We also have 6 athletes competing on Sunday at the local Nottingham Autumn Head, raced over 5450m in the first division, and then the shorter 2000m course for our 4 novice scullers from last year. Fingers crossed the weather behaves for everyone racing on Sunday.

After this weekend, focus will turn to the fours head held in London on 7th November, where we have an elite and an IM1 quad entered.

We had a large entry of crews into  HWR this year, many of who were looking to gain experience in their singles, racing in an environment which is more intense than the normal multi-lane racing.

The weekend started off early Friday morning with time trials in almost all events - a testament to the increased popularity and growth of the regatta. All crews made it through the time trials successfully and prepared to compete in the main regatta.

The Senior quad of Anna Thornton, Catherine Lineker, Kyra Edwards and Beth Lloyd racing for the Chairman's Trophy were first to compete, beating Star Club with an Easily verdict. They then went on to beat a UWE/UTRC composite on the Saturday before being beaten by a very strong Molsey/Putney Town/Strathclyde composite in the semi-finals.

We had 2 single scullers racing in the senior singles for the Bernard Churcher Trophy. Laura Champion and Abigail MacCartney both raced well, but were both sadly beaten by Pepper from Star and Arrow in successive rounds. Pepper went on to lose narrowly in the final. Rosie Taylor was racing in the Senior Lightweight singles, an event won by Yasmin last year. Rosie is new to the squad this year and had an excellent row, but was ultimately beaten on Saturday by Lewis from Greenbank Falmouth. For all 3 scullers this has given them a chance to see where they stand individually against the rest of the domestic competition, and will fuel their winter training for next season.

Yasmin made the step up to elite lightweight singles this year, racing in an event which contained athletes who were subsequently named in the GB U23 and senior teams. Despite a solid row, Yasmin was beaten by Humphries of TSS on the Saturday.

There were two senior doubles entered, racing for the Rosie Mayglothling trophy. Vicky Jones and Caitlin had found they were an excellent combination through the season, winning at Nottingham City Regatta and forming well as a double. The other double of Kirstie and Nikki were second at Notts City and hoping the extra few weeks training up to HWR would help them improve on this position. Vicky and Caitlin, despite carrying an injury onboard, raced well to hold TSS level through the enclosures, but the Scullers crew dug deep and unfortunately edged the double to the line.
Nikki and Kirstie had a solid couple of rows on the Saturday, giving them the opportunity to practice their race plan and learn to handle the environment at the start. On Sunday they had a good race against Reading RC, and then faced Glasgow Uni in the final. Times through the regatta had suggested this was going to be a close final. The girls went out hard and got themselves ahead by the barrier, where they held their distance through to the finish, to win by 1 1/2 lengths.

Thanks must go to the organising committee for another well run regatta, and also to the programme designer who found the best crew from last year to put on the front cover!

 

Once again Met Regatta was blessed with sunshine and flat water. We had a large squad of athletes racing. Abbie, Laura, Rosie and Yasmin were all racing in singles, with Kirstie/Nikki and Caitlin/Vicky racing in doubles, and lastly Anna, Catherine, Kyra and Beth racing in a quad. The scullers all raced well within their categories, improving as the day progressed and they got closer to the finals. Winners on the first day were the senior double of Kirstie and Nikki, and the senior quad. Laura wheeler also won in a composite 4-.

Sunday saw an opportunity for Caitlin and Vicky to improve on their performances the day before, which they did, and narrowly missed out on a place in the final of IM2 doubles, a big step up from the novice double they raced as at Notts City. Both Abbie and Laura both continued to improve on the previous days performances in their singles, bridging the gap up to the lead athletes. For consideration for the Commonwealth Regatta team, many athletes were asked to race in Elite and Elite Lightweight Singles. Kirstie and Catherine both raced in the openweight singles, with Yasmin and Rosie racing in the lightweight. Understandably competition was fast, and unfortunately despite some very good racing, none of the girls made it to the final.

Overall it was a very successful weekend, with two wins and everyone stepping on and improving their performances at the higher level of competition. This gives us a good indication of where we are and what we need to work on ahead of Henley Women’s Regatta on 20-22^nd June.