Having spent the last three and half weeks off the water the Senior crew's put in some amazing performances at Wycliffe small Boats Head on 5th December.

The First Boys quad raced in IM3 4X in the morning and looked stylish throughout the race albeit sluggish into a strong head breeze. Henry Page stroked the boat magnificently and Charlie Adams backed him up with a good rhythm. Charles Absolon and Lucas Wendal both making their debut for the senior crew provided the power in the engine room of the boat. Hitting a solid 32 strokes/minute Henry pushed through the middle of the race to catch up on Christchurch who started 30 seconds ahead of them. The crew also made up ground on Gloucester and pulled away from Kings Worcester. The crew's time of 8.49 broke the event record by 0.6 second and took the gold medal by 26 seconds. In the afternoon division, buoyed by the earlier success, the crew stormed through the opposition and looked far more aggressive and motivated. They went on to win the J18 4X in a time of 9.01, 16 seconds up and pick up yet another gold medal. A fantastic performance by all the crew.

Similarly the girls raced extremely well to pick up two medals. Martha Kohlaas stepped up first in the single scull and raced extremely well in unfavourable conditions and overtook 3 singles and two double sculls. A fine achievement and her speed was rewarded with a silver medal in J17 1X. In the afternoon Martha teamed up with fellow German sculler Charlotte Eggeling to race in J18 2X. The girls looked extremely long and strong. Rating lower than the boys at 28 strokes/minute into a strong headwind was a wise choice as the girls stormed down the course to hit a time of 10.56 to win by 15 seconds and win the second medal of the day.

Gordon Reay

The weather held up well for the days racing at Wycliffe, making a change from previous years! A slight head wind, and rather cold, but not as wet as we might have expected.

All the crews raced hard, with some excellent results. The first to be congratulated must be the Senior Boys Quad - who not only won IM3, but then went on to repeat the performance by charging through the opposition to win the J18 category also, topping it all off with an event record time! (The crew was Henry Page, Charles Absolon, Charlie Adams and Lucus Wendal.)

However, the small but perfectly formed Senior Girls Squad refused to be overshadowed. Unfortunately the IM3 4x had to to scratched due to illness, but Martha Kolhaas and Charlotte Eggeling faced up to the challenge before them, coming home victorious with a win in the J18 2x in addition to Martha's silver medal in Women's Novice Sculls.

Rhiannon Jones - Assistant Rowing Coach, MCSBC