For the past two weeks RRC has taken part in a couple of sprint regattas getting that all important race practice in the lead up to the Victorian State Championships. There have been some fun races and great results.
Sunday 1st Feb was spent at a very cold, wet and windy Lake Colac regatta on the Barwon river. This regatta was a tale of second places for the FD4+, FD8+ and Mix8+ with RRC being involved in some very close and exciting finishes. One crew of Michelle Joy and Karen Doggett in the C2X came out on top in a final sprint for the line finishing less than a second clear of their rivals from Footscray. Wins also went to Geraldine Goss in two Hawthorn composite masters crews in the Coxed E Quad and E-F Four.
A week later we descended on Ballarat, this time as hard as it is to believe at Lake Wendouree the sun shone (but their is photographic proof ). I think everyone was fired up from the racing a week earlier and Kieran was so determined he pulled so hard he snapped his oar in half during the MD4+. However with a drive to succeed the wins kept coming. There were medals for the WC8+, WC4X+ and WD4+. Not to be out done the men waited for both their coaches to arrive and cheer them on from the bank to bring home the title of the MD8+.
I must thank our BROs for both events – Sam Morrison, Micheal Gehling, Karen Doggett and Rochelle Stokes and trailer drivers Charlie Burke and Time Evans. As always a lot of work goes in to organising these trips to regattas and we hope everyone who took part had fun. Only a few weeks left til the state championships and clearly things are looking good for RRC! Keep up the good work and see you all next Saturday rowing or cheering on RRC at the home Yarra based regatta of Australian Henley which will be followed by a club social on the deck.
Full crew lists of winners at Ballarat:
WC8+ – Sophie Robinson, Karen Doggett, Ainsley Raggatt, Michelle Joy, Geraldine Goss, Lindsey Brown, Rochelle Stokes and Kate Dyball. Cox: Derek Begg
WC4X+ – Sophie Robinson, Geraldine Goss, Rochelle Stokes and Kate Dyball. Cox: Derek Begg
WD4+ – Ainsley Raggatt, Catherine Hardie, Emily Dunn and Lindsey Brown. Cox: Derek Begg
MD8+ – Daniel Meka, Andy Harrison, Laurant Demay, Ben Scarlett, Nic Forte, Jon Roberts, Kieran Burke and Matt Ebattson Cox: Caroline Manning
