SPR & SUCS - A Record Gold Medal Haul

Over the past weekend, the boat club travelled down to Glasgow to race at the Strathclyde Park Regatta and the Scottish University Championships. Novice and Senior squads competed in a number of events across Saturday and Sunday. This change of venue was a great opportunity to take advantage of Strathclyde Park's 2k course which is perfect preparation for the upcoming British University Championships next weekend.

The Senior Men were the first to race on the Saturday, placing third in the open 4x straight final. This was an impressive start to the weekend bearing in mind they were up against crews including GB U23 athletes. Shortly afterwards the senior men's pair placed second in the heat of the SPR event, placing them fourth in the final. The men also raced in singles later on that afternoon, where two of our senior men competed in the open singles heats, with Joe Taylor making it to the final and placing a respectable fifth. Additionally, the men competed in the intermediate four event in which they narrowly missed out on first place to Heriott-Watt University.

It was then the turn of the Novice Men, placing fourth in the beginner's double category. We also had one of our novice men racing in a single for the first time ever, but unfortunately he didn't make it through to the finals later that day.

Focus then shifted to the Senior Women, with their first race being the Women's Intermediate four and placed fourth in the straight final. It was then over to the squad's captain, Kirstin Giddy, who won the Women's Intermediate Singles by a significant margin. Another win was also witnessed on the Saturday from the senior women in the eight. Later in the day the first four raced in the W4- event and came fifth in their heat, against some very tough competition.

The Novice Women started off their Saturday racing with the WB4+, confidently leading the pack in the first 1k and despite some difficulties during the race, placed a respectable fifth. They bounded back in later performances with both fours getting into the final of the W4+ and placing second and sixth. The day was ended with a race for some of our newest members of the novice squad, who raced in the women's novice double, placing sixth in the final.

Moving onto Sunday, more medals were won and the squads continued to gain even more racing experience. Success came in the form of the novice women winning the SUC's Beginner Eight event and placing second in the SPR novice eight event. The Senior Women didn't have as much luck medalling in the WI8+, placing fourth in the event but certainly brought their determination forward to the upcoming races; second place was earned by one of the senior women pairs in the SPR pairs event. Medalling continued throughout the day where a gold was won for another Senior Women's pair in the SUCs Championship pair event.

Following this the Senior Women later raced in coxed four events, placing third in the SUCs champ 4+ and fourth in the SPR 4+ event. This was a similarly successful day for the senior men's double, adding to the collection of medals by winning the SUC's MInt2x. They also competed in the SPR open quad heats but sadly missed out on the final. The weekend was rounded off by the men's intermediate singles and open lightweight singles, where Dom Goymour placed in fourth and Ben Carruthers in third, respectively.

The rowers and coaches are already starting to see the hard work of the winter training pay off, moving into what we hope to be a very successful regatta season for the club. It has been an exciting weekend for the club, with unparalleled experience gained for both the seniors and novices and medals won across the board.