Many of RRC’s states crews took the opportunity this Saturday in the last weekend before the Victorian State Championships to get some race practice at Australian Henley with 800m match racing.
With only masters and C grade club racing or above available the competition was fierce but we had strong representation across the mens and womens events. With 25 entries in the mens C quad and only two lanes to race on the Yarra, Andy, Michael, Andrew and Leigh coxed by Christine had a tough job but completing the course as a time trial they finished sixth qualifying for the C final.
Both the womens C grade and masters quad had 8 entries with Richmond representing a crew in each. The unstoppable combination of Sophie, Michelle, Ainsley and Gerry coxed by Mike Numa went from strength to strength through the heat, semi and final improving with every row to finish victorious and with beaming smiles collect their well deserved medals.
The masters quad of Karen, Stefanie, Lisa and last minute sub Julia (thank you very much) also made it through to their final and after a quick swop of boats and cox after the heat had a good race to finish second. Other crews who gained valuable race experience in some close fought events were the mens and womens fours of Nic, Jon, Matt and Laurent and Erin, Susanna, Sarah and Shern. Both crews will be highly competitive in their D grade events at states based on this weekends showing.
The afternoon session also saw the largest and smallest boat classes represented with Andy taking on the open single and a crew of Dave, Lachlan, Nic, Jon, Matt, George, Laurent and Allan coxed by Christine competing in the C eight. With the girls finished and enjoying the sunshine we cheered them all on from the bank and with the pleasant realisation that there was no rigging and boat unloading to be done with our local regatta everyone had the afternoon/evening to celebrate a job well done.
A special mention to our proactive BROs from the development squad who volunteered and put in hours marshalling and on control to become accredited level 1 boat race officials.