30/05/07

Upper Thames bring back gold from Denmark

A new combination from Upper Thames Rowing Club’s veteran squad came back from Copenhagen with a gold medal over the Bank holiday weekend.

Jim Wetherell (bow) James Wilson, Steve Dance and Ian Neville (stroke) flew to Denmark to compete in the Copenhagen F.I.S.A. International regatta on Saturday and Sunday 26th/27th May, where the Danish rowing authorities had arranged to lend them a quadruple scull and blades.

Left to right - James Wilson, Ian Neville, Steve Dance & Jim Wetherell

They were given an amazing welcome by the Danes who flew the Union flag prominently even though Upper Thames and a sculler from Minerva/Bath Rowing Club were the only British crews taking part.

Not surprisingly, given Denmark’s pre-eminence in the world of lightweight rowing and sculling, entries were of an extremely high standard. The crew beaten into second place by the Upper Thames veteran ’C’ category (average age 43 years) quadruple scull were all former internationals and included one Olympic medallist.

The Upper Thames quad, itself a former lightweight crew, took a leaf from the famous Danish sculling style-book and rowed with a notably neat technique and at a sharp rate to win in the final by seven seconds. The race is rowed over 1000 metres of the famous six-lane international course.