Loughborough rowers celebrate winter success
WITH the onset of winter, competitive rowing moves away from side-by-side knockout racing and over to a time trial format, called a ‘head race’.
Loughborough Boat Club crews have recently competed widely across the Midlands and produced wins in a range of boat classes.
At Nottingham on a 4.5km course on the River Trent, sculler Tom Scholefield came home an impressive third out of a fleet of 93 boats to win in his category of single sculls, whilst the club’s Ladies Coxed Four also collected a trophy in their own banding. In the midday division over a 2km course Junior Under 14 single sculler Thomasin Storey competed in one of her first ever events; she showed confidence and competitive spirit on this wide and fast flowing river, producing an excellent time and finishing ahead of 14 of her rivals.
On the same day, two Loughborough crews competed on the River Great Ouse at Huntingdon which was a venue the club has rarely visited; good experience of the twisty river was gained by Double Scullers Mike Targett and Scott Ferrers, and also by the Ladies Masters Coxed Four.
Further west, on Sunday, three club boats raced over a 4km course on the River Severn at Stourport, with the Mens Masters ‘D’ Coxless Four producing a thrilling victory by just 4 seconds over a muchfancied Worcester crew. As always, ‘Woody’, the vintage hand-built wooden boat used by the Loughborough crew, drew admiring glances from spectators and disbelief from opponents that they had been beaten by yesterday’s technology!
Finishing sixth out of 60 boats, the Loughborough ‘oldies’ clocked the fastest Masters time of the day.