“Learn to race by racing”…one of the pearls of wisdom from coach Neville Smith. The RRC foursome of Sophie, Gerry, Rochelle and Kate love opportunities to race and have looked forward to this 2014 sprint season. Their first outing was at the Carrum at Nagambie regatta in December. The first race, the C4+ caught them unawares as they failed to make the transition from head racing to sprint racing! Ah yes, the searing pain of a 1k sprint is quite different from the slow burn of a head race, and crews must be quick off the start or be left there.
A very rapid turnaround in races saw the crew take the boat off the water at the 1500 mark, re-rig as a quad and race straight back to the start; a maneuver that was rehearsed, to the amusement of spectators, but ran like clockwork. In the C 4x the heat was won but in the final the crew were overpowered by rampaging schoolgirls with a strong finish. And so the crew looked to another challenge and entered the C quad event today (after a full early morning training session!) at the Lake Colac regatta at Barwon. The predicted 40deg heat saw the regatta start brought forward 2 hours to 7am, however as best laid plans often do, it failed when the start had to be put back again due to early morning mist causing zero visibility on the water.
On this occasion, the RRC crew was able finish ahead of the schoolgirl crews in the heat, (the race, as well as the temperature) and row solidly past MRC in the final to take home the medal. Meanwhile, Kate coxed Gerry’s composite crew to a win in the masters four event to chalk up another RRC success. It’s hard to win grade events these days, and
competition is intense, but it’s thrilling when it happens.
Go Tigers!