Coxed four beaten but medal joy for Bastin
STRATFORD Boat Club’s masters women’s coxed four of Rebecca England, Adrianna Abreu, Lucy Scarlett and Fiona Schulz had a very solid row in their first heat at Oxford City Royal Regatta.
Ably coxed by Debs Thompson and while racing at senior level against a much younger crew from the City of Bristol Rowing Club, they maintained composure off the start despite being slightly down on their opposition.
As the race progressed and both crews settled into their pace, the Stratford crew used their power well to level and then start to pull away from Bristol and moving into the final stages, they were up by just over a length. Their opponents finished strongly but Stratford won.
In the semi-final Stratford faced Wolfson College Oxford’s first four, a crew who had won their own heat by over five lengths. Again, Stratford were able to start strongly and were level only for the young students to pull away and win by two lengths.
The Masters D composite quad of Gina Fusco , Naomi Holland (UTRC), Ellie Davis and Christine Goodwin had a smooth and strong start against a very good crew from Henley Rowing Club. Fusco, at bow, steered a clean course and Ellie Davies set a great race rhythm allowing the crew to pull away and survive a last gasp push from Henley resulting in a clear semi-final win of a length and a half.
In the final, the crew met Falcon Rowing Club, a Masters E crew with a seven seconds head start off the stakeboat due to the age handicapping system. Despite another fast and smooth start, great pace and two strong pushes, the quad were unable to claw their way back.
The adaptive squad raced at Oxford Sprint Regatta on Sunday. It was the last outing of a successful regatta season, winning three of the five events entered and narrowly losing the other two in the final.
The result of the day was James Bastin’s impressive win in a doubles event. Registered blind and with other impairments, he raced with one of his occupational therapists and moved clear of his opponents down the 500m course, winning by a comfortable five or six lengths.
Head adaptive coach Mark Dewdney said: “It’s always a great day when James wins. He overcomes his disabilities with a smile on his face.”
Mother/son combination of Paola and Ian Ward dominated their mixed doubles event beating Marlow by four lengths. Gillian Middleton and racing partner Neville Hand’s final was again against a Marlow crew. This was close until halfway when good technique started to tell with the Stratford crew crossing the finish line around three lengths ahead.
Isaac Clarkson, aged 14, lost his singles final to an 18-year-old by two lengths before teaming up with 78-year-old Neville Hand for the best doubles final of the day, just losing to City of Oxford by about one foot.
Dewdney added: “It’s been an odd season. In the spring, events were lost due to flooding and next week’s Ross regatta has been cancelled due to too little water! We would have liked more opportunities to race but when we got the chance, we had about an 80 per cent win rate – we must be happy with that.”
