Stratford masters show their potential in Nottingham

ROWING

KJERSTI Rogneflaten Woolley and Tim Lunel showed their potential while representing Stratford BC at the Nottingham City Masters Regatta.

The regatta is run at Holme Pierrepont, a purpose-built rowing lake where the event is run over six lanes with starts from stake boats.

Lunel opened the regatta by racing in the first event - the Open Masters D single.

Having accumulated enough sculling points to be in the Band One final, he was well beaten by two very good scullers from Exeter and Marlow.

Then it was Woolley’s turn and she raced against a lady athlete from North Staffordshire Rowing Club.

Her opponent had a quick start and Woolley was down at the 200m mark.

Knowing she has a good middle section, Woolley persevered and at the 750m mark she had taken a comfortable lead which she kept to the finish.

The next race for Woolley was a composite race with Derwent in the Women Master D coxed four.

They were in a very good race with three opponents, but despite good efforts, they did not win.

The last race of the day was the Women Master D coxes four which is the boat Woolley and the Derwent crew had been training for during the winter.

The rudder broke at the start so the crew had to use three lanes to get down the course.

Battling on, the crew managed to reach the finish line first before the Putney Town competitors.

Woolley said: “We had a great day and beat the times of younger crews in both coxed and coxless events.

"The next big event for us is the Masters’ National Championship in Strathclyde in June.”