20th July 2008

Our weekend up at Nottingham for the National Championships started early on Saturday morning….two crews from Twickenham’s Women’s squad were racing over the weekend: our lightweight pair of Gemma Taylor and Christine Palmer were joined by a composite coxed four consisting of Nicola Butler, Gayle Farmer and Sam Grant racing with two members of Imperial College.

Home Pierrepoint was true to form with the head wind on Saturday being particularly strong. The coxed four raced first and made it through to the repecharge on Saturday afternoon. In the repecharge they had a good race but didn’t make it through to the final and were unlucky to have drawn the most wind affected lane.

The lightweight pair, arrived on Saturday morning to discover that one of the crews in their category had scratched. This meant that the heats were no longer necessary so a straight final was scheduled for the Sunday. Following racing on Saturday, we all camped at Nottingham for the pairs race the next day. On Sunday the wind had subsided quite a bit and having successfully weighed in the pair went out for a strong row in difficult conditions. They finished 4th and were very pleased with their performance. It was a enjoyable weekend of racing and a great way to end the season.