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.