Officialy a water rower

After teaching the ergo monkey to row on water the time has come for him to put into practice his new found boat moving skill.  Just 2 months ago John had never sat in a boat and today was racing in a fine racing scull in the men’s novice 1x event at Burton Head.  I also agreed to race a mixed 2x with him which I came to regret when your freezing waiting for the start.  Having never been in a 2x before it was a case of wing it and see.

 

First up in Division 1 was his 1x race a field of 8 competitors some of which had several year’s experience despite not progressing form the novice category.  I was on hand with the camera and a few cheers from the bank.  He looked to be having a strong race and even managed to navigate through the Leicester Line Bridge without a hiccup.  John finished 3^rd in the event and considering the amount of water time he’s had I think that’s a pretty strong result.

 

 

It was back to the club for a short lunch break and a rest before it was time to boat for the second division.  This time he had to drag me down the course whilst I had to try and steer not one of my strongest points.  We got to the start having had a couple of good practice pieces on the way up if not a little a wet.  There was no need to worry about the rain when I was sat behind John who did a good job of showering me with Trent water.  After sitting around in the cold for a while it was time to turn by which point your entire warm up has vanished and you’re just frozen.  Sure enough you soon warm up in the race.   


I found it quite strange but the event was about Johns rowing and not mine.  We had a few good patches where the boat seemed to shift mainly when he relaxed a bit.  It’s easy to forget when you’ve been rowing for so long how tense novice rowers can be especially when they are so eager to do well.  It was great fun despite the cold and things are always so much nicer when you get a medal at the end of things. 

 

 

It was a pleasure to be part of John’s first racing experience and especially to be part of his first win on the water.  He has now moved back down to London where he has joined the High Performance club for lightweight rowing London Rowing Club.  I know this will be the first win of many for John and I look forward to seeing him achieve his goals.

 

Well done John

Diamond Jubilee Rowing Championships

This year has seen the start of a new Olympiad and a new format to the trails system.  This year bought the Diamond Jubilee Rowing Championships which is to form the new British Rowing Championships.   Racing took place in doubles and four’s on Saturday and then in quads and eights on the Sunday.  The initial race took the form of a time trial where we would be seeded into semi-finals over 2000m.  I raced in the four with Catherine, Lindsay and Fiona and then joined forces with the Nottingham B crew to race in the eight on Sunday. 

 

We were a bit apprehensive going into the weekend as it’s very unusual to race over 2000m at this point in the season.  We’ve also been struggling with illness leading into the event, it’s that time of year when coughs and colds are rife.  We had a great race in the time trial coming in 3^rd with only a 1 second gap between each of the top 3 crews.  This gave us a lot of confidence going into the semi where we would race 2^nd ranked Leander Club.  We had a shocking start and had to make our way back into the mix.  We pulled our way back into second and back in contact with the Leander crew.  We crossed the line in second and despite our start we had a solid race.  Again our confidence grew with our performance and we were excited by what the final might bring.

 

We had a much better start in final and the Imperial College crew took the early lead.  This left us battling with Leander and Molesey Boat Club for silver and bronze.  We kept pushing away from Leander but they are a strong crew and there was no way they were going to lay down and die.  They came with us all the way and when we nudged ahead they responded.  Molesey started to drop back but were still in contact with us and Leander.  With 500m to go we picked up our pace and with a burst for the finish pulled a length ahead of them we finished strong to cross the line in second. 

 

Gold      Imperial College Boat Club                           7:05.65

Silver     Nottingham Rowing Club                              7:09.33

Bronze  Leander Club                                                    7:12.92

 

Sunday bought more racing on some very tired legs this time in the eight.  We went out for a short a pre-paddle being the first time we had been out as a crew.  Our time trial was scrappy to say the least with a lot of our crew having very little experience in eights racing especially over 2000m.  We had a slight change in the order of our crew for the semi-final and raced to come in 3^rd qualifying for the A Final.   We made a step on in each race we did and the final was no different.  We came home in 5^th position in the final to end a good weekends racing.