Rachel Quarrell, May 12-13 2001, Gent, Belgium
NB this piece was written for the Independent Newspaper, at their request a long article, but then shredded to a quarter of its length when motor-racing and football swamped the coverage that weekend. The original article is reproduced here.
This weekend many elite British club crews started their summer racing at Gent, in Belgium, in preparation for Henley Women's Regatta and Henley Royal Regatta. A handful of domestic short-course regattas have already been run, but for those intent on winning a Henley trophy, this two-day 2000 metre regatta is the perfect start to their medal campaign.
Saturday was the Belgian National Championships, open to foreigners, followed by Gent International Regatta on Sunday. British and Irish crews, numbering over half the thousand-plus entries, duly walked off with fourteen senior trophies on Saturday and seventeen on Sunday, plus six and seven junior titles respectively. Few clubs had easy wins, with powerful Belgian and French challengers in most events, although Kirsten McLelland-Brooks of Rebecca Rowing Club demolished her Saturday opposition in the lightweight women's single sculls, and gave a repeat performance on Sunday to win by eight seconds. The effect of the floods on UK speed was obvious, as some clubs struggled to be anywhere near the standard required.
Scottish Rowing's strong small boats squad won a total of seven events over the two days, mostly in lightweight men's categories. Thames Rowing Club's women took two sculling trophies (one composite with Tideway Scullers) plus gold and silver in the women's eights, but were then overturned by stronger opposition on the second day in all but their women's coxless pair. More concerning to the Thames coaches is that their women's second eight keeps beating the first: seat-racing next weekend should sort that out before Henley Women's Regatta in June.
The junior results gave little away, most UK schools preferring to stay at home. Lady Eleanor Holles girls won two trophies, and Eton's boys matched them, leaving one Abingdon School junior men's eight trailing on Saturday but then getting the return treatment from a second Abingdon combination on Sunday in the Senior B eights race. Windsor Boys School were the fastest junior men's quad both days, putting down an early marker for the Fawley Cup at Henley.
London and Molesey men, normally strong contenders at this regatta, were off the pace and unable to medal, but Molesey in particular have powerful oarsmen not on the Belgian trip who will join their Henley plans. Imperial College used the men's small boats events to run some ad-hoc time trials, but with recent exams hitting training, none of their coxless pairs could make the A final.
British pride was upheld in the big-boat heavyweight races, University of London winning men's A coxed fours, and Leander the B fours and men's quads. Strength in depth came from Oxford Brookes University, whose men's open eight and coxless four dominated to collect four wins in two days. Brookes' women's coxless four, in their first elite regatta, broke the Belgian national record by eleven seconds in their first race, won the Saturday final, and then doubled their gold medals the next day in equally convincing style.
Copyright Rachel Quarrell 2001