Nottingham RC Scoop Two Golds at the National Schools Regatta

Nottingham Rowing Club report on their success at the National Schools Regatta…

Nottingham Rowing Club’s J16 squad have scored again in a big way by winning the hotly contested quad sculling events in both boys’ and girls’ events, in the face of strong opponents from top Schools as well as Clubs nationwide.

Saturday’s tussle with Westminster School for Tom Selby at stroke, Dominic Harrison, George Greenfield and Edward Fisher steering ended in a convincing winning margin after a hard fight in the middle of the race with both crews clearing the rest of the field. With their rate that didn’t drop below 37strokes/minute, the boys said that “the further it went the easier it felt”, a sure sign that their technique was right for the job on the day, using the successful race plan which brought Olympic Gold to our GB lightweight scullers in Beijing 2008.

Sunday saw a repeat performance in the face of a big push from high quality opponents by Mary Wilson at Stroke, Katie Bartlett, Holly Oughton and Sarah Padbury steering, with the Nottingham girls leading off the start to take the race by the scruff of the neck. Dropping Sir William Borlase early on, they then countered a major burst by Tideway Scullers School over the middle stage of the race. Sticking to the race plan of getting an early lead, then make sure of the result by the 3rd 500m section, the girls powered to a six second margin at the line. Their boat, Nottingham supplied, is of a tried and tested design used by the Chinese Olympic team also in Beijing.

Both these boats are privately funded by the athletes families, and so will be expected to follow the crews as they progress up the age-groups to Under 18 in 2012. The rowing club has a bulge of 14 and 15 year old athletes coming through, so the hunt is now on for one or more benefactors to find up to £30,000 in coming months, so that these younger crews can form and repeat the process next year with the right tools for the job.