Richmond Rowing Club appears to be on track for a successful Sydney campaign following a string of solid results at this weekend’s Victorian State Championships.
Leading the way was the men’s D eight picking up the clubs only gold medal for the weekend. Stroked by Tim Foster, the crew got off to a flyer and kept their cool to fend off a fast finishing Corowa eight to score by one metre. The victory was particularly pleasing for the crew, as Corowa has been the clubs nemesis in recent years beating the Richmond men to gold in a number of close championship races.
In other results, the club won several silver medals including Nick Schouten in the under 19 single scull who is back and in the boat after taking a year off to play football. A slow starting, fast finishing female C quad stroked by club legend Zara Love, had to settle for silver after narrowly missing out on taking the gold off the highly fancied crew from Latrobe University.
English recruit Rachael Button adapting well to the cool overcast conditions, raced strongly in the female D single taking silver as did the men’s D pair of Barry Campbell and Dave Micallef (coxed by Mike Numa) who notched up their second medal for the regatta in the last race of the day.
Bronze medals also went to the Richmond female D pair of Olivia Brown and Lindsay Morgan (coxed by Simonne Jollye) and the female D four stroked by Tamara Lowe.
Club captain Barry Campbell was pleased with the club’s form over the weekend and believes that a number of the crews are showing great signs building into the NSW state champs which are being held in Sydney on the weekend of 9/10 April.
Simon Crunden