Gold rush for MK's rowers

With two trailers fully loaded with boats, MK Rowing Club arrived at the Peterborough Summer Regatta ready to bring home some silverware. Over the two days of racing, amongst many impressive performances, six crews succeeded in getting the better of the competition and bagging gold.

The first win on the sunny Saturday was the IM3 Quad of Emma Tarshish, Cherry Kemp, Marzena Kotowicz and Lucy Millett. The crew powered past their competition, kept calm and stayed out of danger despite clashes between other racing crews throughout the race. As the City of Cambridge boat tried to make up lost ground the MK crew responded and crossed the line with a clear win.

Only minutes later there was another gold for MK, this time delivered by the impressive Women’s Masters E 4+ crew of Louise Rivett, Karen Wilson, Paula Heywood, Helen Smith and their cox Matthew Heggie. The ladies raced confidently to a convincing win over the 1km distance. Further demonstrating the clubs dominance in Masters events were Rod Bennett and Steve Lawson in the Masters E Pair category, overcoming being hit by a racing crew steering off course as Rod and Steve rowed up to the line. Unfazed the pair got to the line and put into practice plenty of hard training together to dominate the race with a clear victory.

Sunday was just as super for the MK crews, with the winning Women’s Masters E crew from the previous day showing they can be just as deadly over a shorter 500m course, coxed this time by Alice Draper. Beating the crew in second from Star Rowing Club by a clear distance this crew is well placed to continue its success through the last races of the regatta season.

Helen Marshall and Jenny Searle faced disappointment on the Saturday when they were narrowly beaten into second place over the 1km course. Coming back Sunday they fought hard and turned around their luck to bag the gold in the Women’s Masters B Double Sculls over 500m. The final win of the weekend came from the Mixed IM3 8+ in the very final race of the regatta. A powerful crew of Jake Veasey, Jo Heywood, Shaun Turner, Nick Hughes, Aga Zabczyk, James Hughesman, Emma Tarshish, and Megan Lloyd-Palmer, were expertly coxed by Chris Wilson. Recovering quickly from a slow start the crew pushed hard to fly by their competitors and win by a clear length.

While the regatta season may be nearing a close, the summer is far from over for MK Rowing Club. Coming up are the exciting events of ‘Rock up and Row’ on August 27th where anyone can come along and try rowing for free, and the annual MK Regatta on 17th September which having gained British Rowing affiliation this year promises to be bigger and better than ever. To find out more about these events visit www.mkrowing.org, or search for Milton Keynes Rowing Club on Facebook.