Sunday February 9 saw the Richmond Rowing Club descend on Lake Nagambie once more for the annual Nagambie Regatta!
For most, it was an early start with cars filled with sleepy rowers departing Melbourne at 5am to make it for the beginning of a long day of races along a 1000 metre course. But other keener rowers took full advantage of the culinary, specifically brewery related, delights that Nagambie have to offer and arrived a day early.
The trusty Richmond tent was stationed along the last 200 metres of the course, perfect positioning for boosting the morale of the weary rower who has fallen victim to the dreaded ‘fly and die’.
Dana and Susanna delivered a strong performance in the Female C Grade Double Scull heat but missed out on making the final of the event. However, they had subsequent opportunities to compete in the C Grade Coxed quad scull with Mel Perkins and Sarah Houghton joining in too, winning the second heat convincingly but just falling short by a few seconds in the final coming second against Melbourne.
Lily Innes-Irons and Mel Perkins came first in their D Grade Single Scull heats, coming an admiral second and third place in the final. Mel came second place by 0.45 seconds behind her opponent from Caulfield Grammar. A tremendous effort!
Rosie, Gypsie, Kirsty and Ally did us very proud coming second by an absolute whisker against Melbourne in the Female D Grade Coxed Four, reliably coxed by Derek, crossing the line only 1.92 seconds after the victors.
The hardworking dream team of Pavel, Lachie, Richie and Jack came second in the Male D Grade Coxed four defeating a newcomer crew comprised of Alex P, Nathan, Campbell and your’s truly, who had jumped in the boat together for the first time on the day of racing.
Rosie Dickson-Hoyle and Gypsy Shepherd have some more bling to add to their collection after their stunning victory in the Female D Grade Double Scull arriving at the finish line 2 seconds ahead of Rutherglen. Yet another tremendous effort and testament to both their hard work and the coaching brilliance of Dario Sportelli. Dario, who along with Jon Roberts, Allan Randall and Dennis Beck proved unstoppable in the C-Grade Men’s Four, boosting Richmond’s medal tally again.
After what Will Golding admits was an ‘interesting choice of steering’ over the first 100 metres of our race, the rag tag team of development and yellow squad rowers, claimed victory over Hawthorn in the final for the Men’s D-Grade eight. Once again, this was the first time this crew had rowed together. It was quite a surprise for the rest of the team including Campbell Mayne, Tim Evans, Nathan Brumley, Kim Begelhole, Alexander Reid, Matt Hardy, Alexander Pupko, myself and our fearless leader Will Golding all coming home with a gold medal.
Unperturbed by their second place in their previous race, Pavel, Lachie, Richie and Jack won gold in the Male D Grade Coxed Quad after a strong performance, finishing 11 seconds ahead of the other competitors. A brilliant result for one of the many hardworking Richmond crews that were out on Lake Nagambie.
Particular thanks should go towards all those who came to support us. Our spirits and energy levels were particularly bolstered by Lily Innes-Irons wonderful mother, Jill, who provided a metric tonne of honey joys for anxious rowers to nibble on ahead of their race. I put their sugary and buttery goodness down to our surprise victory.
I think most can agree that 2020’s Nagambie Regatta was one filled with highs and lows. While there may have been some personal disappointments following the regatta, all of our performances were testament to our hard work and determination and only spoke to our competitiveness for States and an exciting year of racing we can all look forward to.
Hamish Taylor
