News

Posted: September 16, 2013

Attracted by the prospect of some beautiful scenery, warm weather and Italian cuisine many members of the Scottish Rowing Masters contingent made the journey to Varese for the World Rowing Masters Regatta. Once again there was a record number of entries from all over the world with approximately 3,500 rowers competing and over 9,000 racing seats occupied over the 2 full and 2 half days of racing.
Clubs represented by Scotland were Inverness, Aberdeen, Strathclyde Park, St Andrew, Loch Lomond, Clydesdale and Nithsdale. The trailer towed by Steven Kerr and Iain Wilson was impressively loaded with little space to spare. (Enough however for a couple of new Filippi singles to make the return journey!!)

The standard of competition was its usual mix of ex-Olympians, ex-National champions, club rowers and some relatively new to the sport. This meant there would always be an element of luck in which crews were in your races though it is largely based on average ages. As always there was a winner from each race and some of the races would vary greatly on the winning times.

All the Scots had a thoroughly enjoyable time in Italy making the most of the wonderful setting and comradeship this event always offers.
There were a number of close races our crews were involved in with some notable 2nd places but also some fantastic wins for the Scots and their friends.

First to get a medal were Ailie Ord and Sally Pollok Morris (Reading and Loch Lomond) with Hilary Cook and Lesley Baguley from Mortlake Alpha and Anglia in Women’s D Coxed Four. Later on Ailie revisited the presentation pontoon with her crew of Liz Davidson (Strathclyde Park), Eva Rankin (Loch Lomond) and Gill Prescott (Durham) which won the C Quad Sculls. Sally PM had the first of her 3 wins in the single (A, B and C over 3 days)!!

On Friday there were wins for Eva in her E Single, and also in the F Double where she partnered Jackie Darling from Thames. Gill and Ailie won the C double which they followed up with a win in the D category the next day. Ailie joined up with Sally PM, Sarah Payne from Wycliffe and Sue Radley (Reading) to win B Quads and narrowly missed a second medal with Gill, Liz and Eva in D quads.

Gordon Kerr from Nithsdale was successful in the G Single and had some excellent racing in a quad with Tom Hewitt, John Munro and Les Johnstone. Les and Tom had a nail biting race in their pair to come second in the G age group.

As Saturday’s racing drew to a close at nearly 7pm at night, Sally and Ailie, finished off with a win in the C Pair as the sun set!
Sunday saw some bleary eyes after great partying but also some fast and furious racing in the mixed events. Mary O’Toole and Graham Troy (SPRC) were first out in the morning and posted a personal best time – sadly not quite enough for a medal. The well known combination of Liz D and Tom H also had an excellent race which placed them in the middle of the pack. In the F 2x there was some fierce racing with the Inverness duo of Tom Baker and Susanne Hunter leading at the half way point but they were just unable to hang on to their lead in the last few strokes. The D4x of father and son team Steven and Gordon with Gill and Ailie found themselves in a fast and furious heat in which they finished 3rd. Interestingly their time would have put them first in any of the other heats of D and all but one of the C races! Luck of the draw! Steven was replaced by John Appleby from Durham for the F4x and this combination was able to bring the Scots their final medal of the regatta.

All in all it was a fabulous week with great rowing, a great venue, lovely weather, superb organisation, new friendships being formed, old ones refreshed and a whole lot of laughs along the way.