Strathclyde Park Rowing Club made waves at the Scottish Rowing Spring Regatta last month.
It was almost back to normal for the Scottish rowing community at the park on April 23 and 24, with races held in bright but blustery conditions on the international eight-lane course.
Strathclyde Park Rowing Club fielded competitors in almost all the boat classes, from eights, coxed and coxless quadruple sculls, coxed fours, coxless pairs, double sculls and single sculls, across many age categories and levels of experience.
In the Open Novice coxed Quads, McGrory father and son – Thomas and Dominic – ended up in different crews, with the juniors making it to final ‘A’, and winning the Novice title, while the seniors finished second in the ‘B’ final.
In the women’s J18 double sculls, Skye Lee teamed up with a colleague from Stirling Rowing Club and were the fastest crew in the time trial over the 2000m course, gaining them a place in the ‘A’ final, which led to them taking the title.
There were further medals for the women’s masters quadruple scull crew of Mary O’Toole, Rachel Tennant, Liz McGovern and Ailie Ord.
Gillian Connal also teamed up with friends from St Andrew’s Boat Club to win the women’s masters eights title.
On Sunday in slightly better conditions, there was a 1st and 2nd in the women’s masters pairs for Gillian Connal and Martha Walsh, Ivana Safarik and Paul Hubens, and a third for Juan Anza in the open masters single sculls.
There was also a win in the women’s masters coxed fours for Ivana Safarik, Paula Hubens, Gillian Connal, Ailie Ord and cox Nia Struthers, and a silver medal in women’s masters double sculls for Mary O’Toole and Ailie Ord.
Also rowing in single sculls were Jack Fagan, who finished second in the ‘B’ final over the 1000m course, and junior member Finlay Morton, who won the ‘E’ final.
SPRC put four crews out across age groups in the 1000m races for women’s double sculls. Club honours went to juniors Emma Ferguson and Maya Franks, who won silver in the Novice competition.
In their debut race, seniors Olivia Paisley and Katrina Miller had a scrap for the line against the WJ14 crew, who beat them by just 0.7 seconds in the ‘C’ final.
Meanwhile, further south, British Rowing Start athlete Josh Matthews took part in the GB Rowing Team Under-19 Trials Regatta in Nottingham, and placed second in the Under-19 1x Time Trial in disruptive and windy conditions.
Later in the day when the course was shortened to 1000m, Josh finished fourth in a tightly-contested field.
The next stage in the testing process for Josh will be crew formation for the U19 World Championships in July.
There was further success for several SPRC Start Programme athlete the following weekend at the British University Championships (BUCS).
Representing Edinburgh University, Perri McCluskey won gold medals in the women’s championship double scull and quadruple scull, and finished fourth in the championship single scull.
Mike Simpson, also racing in the three championship sculling events, finished fifth in the single, fourth in double, and won a dramatic bronze medal in the quadruple scull.
Olivia Bell also won bronze in the women’s intermediate double scull.
That all led to Edinburgh University finishing second in the women’s and winning the men’s and combined Victor Ludorum (Regatta winners).
The club is keen to recruit new members and is running Learn to Row courses for juniors and seniors.
If you are interested in joining the club, visit their website www.strathclydeparkrc.org.uk and apply through the ‘contact’ menu.
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