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.

The Senior 4x (L-R Sarah, Laura, Beth, Louise)

The Metropolitan Regatta once again fell on a warm and sunny weekend. The squad had a variety of boats entered at this high standard event, and a good performance here would boost confidence in the run up to Henley Women's Regatta. Met is run over two days, with each day being self contained.

On the Saturday Pippa and Nikki came up against each other in the final of the elite single sculls. In a close race, which was won by Olympian Debbie Flood, Pippa came third, closely followed by Nikki in fourth. Also racing was Yaz in IM2 singles. Yaz continued her great racing season by coming home second in her heat, allowing her to progress straight to the final, where she stepped up again and won.

The Elite 4- had a hard lead up to the regatta, with illness preventing the crew from training as a unit, meaning the girls sat on the start line having not actually done more than paddle in this combination - not the best prep! Despite this they were in the mix for most of the race, but the early pace showed towards the end where they came in fourth. On the Sunday, despite making improvements from the day before, they came 5th.

Sarah and Beth from the GB Rowing Start programme raced in a double where they came in second, and then moved in to the senior 4x with Laura and Louise. Despite lying in fourth, and close to taking the final qualifying position from their heat, the wavy conditions got the better of them in the final 300m. They made amends for this performance by dominating the event on the Sunday, winning their heat and then going on to win their final as well.

The last of the Nottingham crews to race were Nikki and Yaz in the Elite Lightweight singles. Nikki built up a strong lead off the start, but couldn't quite maintain her speed through to the finish and came home in second place. Yasmin came fourth with a very strong finish in the final 500m.

Whilst the rest of the squad were at Dorney lake, Abby travelled with the senior men to Peterborough where she raced in novice singles. Despite showing speed in training, Abby is still struggling a little with her start. After remembering how to row in the second half of the race, she managed to make a 50 second improvement in her 500m time, yet despite coming back at the field like a steam train, she didn't manage to make up the time lost over the first half of the race - next time!

Next up is the Coronation Regatta in Windsor on the 15th, followed by Women's Henley Regatta on the 21st-23rd June.