4/06/2007

Weybridge Ladies Regatta

A hatful of medals was the reward for Upper Thames Rowing Club at two regattas over last weekend. The results were particularly pleasing for captain Juliet Machan since the wins were achieved by each of the main rowing squads at Upper Thames - novices, juniors, senior women and senior men. All of the novices have been rowing for less than a year and some for only a few months. Weybridge Ladies Regatta last Sunday gave them their first experience of racing and of winning. They are coached by Dominic Foley.

First to win at Weybridge was Jules Reichel sculling in a regatta in a single scull for only the third time. She beat Tideway Scullers representatives in the semi-final and final to win her first novice single scull trophy.

She then teamed up with the slightly more experienced Victoria Rayment to stroke the women’s novice double scull to victory over three rounds of entertaining racing.

Hannah Shimmin who has already won three trophies this season in the Junior 15 class moved up to J16 for Weybridge even though she will not be 16 until December. She won the event comfortably.

The novice group also entered a coxed four (Clare Desborough bow, Nikki Wright, Andrea Fisarova, Tracey Bowers stroke, and Susannah Coleman cox) at Weybridge. It isn’t yet quite fast enough but still performed well. When they dropped into the novice eight it was a different matter and they won a straight final against Eton Excelsior, the crew comprising Xante Oravecz (bow) Tracey Bowers, Clare Desborough, Nikki Wright, Leah Gregory, Sarah Duff, Andrea Fisarova, Victoria Rayment (stroke) and Susannah Coleman (cox).