Coastal rowers shine at Eton Dorney
The South of England’s coastal rowing associations travelled to Eton Dorney on Saturday, for the 55th annual South Coast Championships.
The Championships consisted of two halves – the Junior Championships in the morning, followed by the main regatta later in the afternoon.
The juniors got the best of the weather on a changeable day in Buckinghamshire, as they raced a shortened 1000m course on the London 2012 Olympic rowing lake.
Plymouth dominated the boys events with wins in the J16 double sculls and J14 quadruple sculls, whilst Itchen claimed an impressive double in the J14 and J16 quads.
The GB Rowing Team’s Dan Ritchie was on hand to present the medals in the junior prize giving at 1pm, with Sir Steve Redgrave also making a surprise appearance at the ceremony.
In the senior regatta, GB Men’s Eight stroke Ritchie claimed his second silver medal in as many weeks – following up his World Championship silver in Bled, Slovenia, just over a week ago with a second-placed finish in the Senior Men’s Open.
The GB athlete’s Herne Bay crew made a strong start to the hotly-contested event, but Southampton Coalporters eventually pulled ahead to claim gold in a time of seven minutes and 51.61 seconds.
The Senior Men’s Championship race was equally hard fought – with BTC, Itchen, Bexhill, and Deal battling it out for the title of South Coast champions.
However, the BTC crew of Simon and Matt Bailey, Wesley Gromniack, Matt Brown, and cox Sophie Maxwell stole a lead in the mid-stages of the race, before pushing on to claim a resounding victory.
For more information on Saturday’s 59 Coastal races, see the official results.
