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

It feels like we haven't stopped since Brit Champs in October! We have had a race every other week since then, so things have been a little busy.

First off, 2 weeks after the Autumn Head we had the first set of GB trials. This is a gruelling weekend, with a 2k erg on the Saturday, and then if you make the cut-off time, you are entered into a 5km head race on the Sunday. The squad got off to an excellent start, with Catherine and Kirstie both making the time, with Kirstie getting a massive PB and going under 7 minutes for the first time and placing 15th. Laura topped off the heavyweight racing with a PB as well. Nikki raced next in the lightweights, falling just short of her PB but making the cut-off comfortably. Yaz continued with her recent form with a PB and a 4th place finish (2nd U23). Laura Wheeler is still recovering from her back injury, and had a medical exemption from this trial.

Day 2 dawned with an early drive back to Boston. We could not have asked for better water conditions, with almost flat calm conditions. Kirstie raced in the heavyweight division first, having an excellent row to come home in 27th place, in an event won by Jess Leyden, the current junior singles World Champion. Unfortunately Catherine was unable to race due to illness. In the lightweight division, Nikki improved on her ranking from the erg to finish in 7th place, with Yaz claiming 10th position. The winner of the lightweight event, Charlotte Taylor, produced the fastest women's time of the day.

The squad then had a quick transition into crew boats for the Fours Head of the River Race. We were involved in 2 quads, an elite quad of Nikki, Laura, Kirstie and Lindsay raced for time only after having to make more than 50% substitutions from the initial entry. Unfortunately, due to a blade breaking just before Hammersmith Bridge, the crew did not achieve the race they were hoping for, but did benefit from some solid power training, after finishing the race with just 3 rowing (and managing to hold off some crews!) Catherine was joined by Start athletes Sarah Bonar and Kyra Edwards as well as Anna Thornton in an IM1 4x, which had a brilliant race, and rowed home with a comprehensive 12 second victory over their opposition, and placing 5th women's quad overall. This is the second time Catherine has won at the Fours Head, and the 3rd time the squad has won a pennant at this prestigious event.

Having felt like we had only just left Boston, we returned on Saturday 14th December for the second GB assessment. This trial was just the 5km water test, with the inclusion of the squad athletes that raced at the World Championships, resulting in a very high quality field. The U23 athletes were not required to attend this assessment, so Catherine and Nikki were the only 2 athletes to race, and were greeted with a massive headwind for the final 3km of the race. Catherine came 27th in a race won by Fran Houghton, with Nikki improving on her previous result, coming 6th, in a race won by Imogen Walsh, who beat Olympic Champion Kat Copeland. As a result of their performance at trials, Kirstie and Yaz have been invited to a training week in Caversham this week.

The squad now get a small break from racing, and a chance to recharge a little over Christmas, before a busy few months at the start of 2014, with WEHoRR, more trials and maybe a few more races thrown in.

Happy Christmas!