28/07/06

Four gold medals for UTRC at Home Countries regatta

Four gold medals was the tally for Upper Thames Rowing Club members from the Home (Four Nations) International Regatta at Strathclyde on Saturday 22nd July.

Mary-Ann Chalmers of Upper Thames stroking the Scotland lightweight women’s double scull and quadruple scull to victory gave Scotland sufficient points to win the women’s title against the other three nations, England, Ireland and Wales.

Team England were the overall winners of the Regatta, helped by the winning men’s junior eight with two Upper Thames members aboard - once again with an Upper Thames member stroking the crew.
In their final the Scotland lightweight women’s double scull got off to a fine start at just under 50 strokes a minute. With Maureen McGarvey of Strathclyde Park RC at bow/steers, Mary-Ann Chalmers stroked the boat to a clear lead at 250 metres which the crew never relinquished. Their winning margin over England in second place was 7.6 sec or around two-and-a-half- lengths.

The final of the women’s lightweight quadruple scull was a different matter altogether with three crews within half a second of each other at the 1000 metre mark. Upping the rating in a drive for the line Mary-Ann was just able to get Scotland’s nose in front to win the gold medal by 0.1 of a second - not much more than the length of the bow ball.

Trials for the junior eight to represent England were held in Nottingham, with a training camp in Henley, in early July. The final cut put two Upper Thames members in the crew for the Home International - Will Satch at (6) and Tom Davies at stroke.

In the straight final against Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the England crew got off to an excellent start and looked set for a fairly comfortable win. The Ireland eight had other ideas. At the 1500 metre mark they mounted a strong challenge. England responded with a final push into the strong headwind that was enough to give them the gold medal in a time of 6 min 33 sec with Ireland second in 6 min 34 sec.

The England selectors had decided that their squad for the Commonwealth Games Regatta 5th/6th August would not be entered in the Home International so Will Hoodless of Upper Thames was not allowed to feature at Strathclyde on Saturday.