Thanks for all who raced, helped and supported. We hope you enjoyed, and will see you at the next one!

Many thanks,
Concept2 BIRC team

This year no Cambridge or Oxford to mop up the medals, we saw Reading really show it’s quality. GB squad member and Reading Uni student Sam Townsend got out of the blocks extremely quickly and pushed all the way to match the scores his GB peers got in Open Hwt.

Sam Townsend got the win in 5:53.2 which puts him 4th fastest time of the day and right in the mix of the established squad members. Mark Roberts from Kingston University chased really hard and matched Townsend in the 2nd half to earn second to earn himself a place in the sub-6-minute club. Matthew Stredwick from Reading Uni got third in another good time.

This was a tight race for the first half, with former lightweight Mathilde Pauls pressing the early leader Cassie Donovan from Birmingham Uni, all the way through first half. Cassie had a few weak spots which let the consistent Mathilde Pauls pull into a convincing lead, which no-one could catch.

After a couple of more wobbles, Donovan settled back into her strong strokes and held off the pressing Emma Nilsson who finished seconds behind in third. Great race from Pauls!

All the remaining medals are being decided as we speak.

The Lwt men put in a very strong display and John Preston fulfilled his role as favourite by digging in during the second half and stretching his lead to earn Reading Uni top marks in this event in 6:18.2.

In the lwt women’s event it was neck and neck, with Reading Uni seemingly in charge all the way. Holly Page from Durham Uni rowed really well however and pulled through into 2nd by the end. Ally Brooks won in 7:31.7, followed by Holly Page and Lottie Burgess (Reading).

Well done all lightweights.

J15 team girls - Peterborough City RC just beat Warrington RC and Shottery with a quick, quick 3:53.0

In the J18 girls teams - Gleevesford from Evesham forged ahead of City of Oxford to win convincingly!

In the J16 it was an out-and-out battle with Trentham BC from Stoke and Nottingham Rowing Club. Nottingham pulled in front halfway through the race, however Trentham never let go, pushed and pushed but Nottingham best them by 0.6s.

CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD - Nottingham Rowing Club J16 girls with 3:47.9 for their really close race with Trentham BC! Well done Nottingham!

J18 boys team:
Super quick Plymstock SSP Bunch took gold with 3:17.5.

J16 boys team:
Cardiff City boys took this 3:13.4

J15 boys team:
Stratford just pipped Nottingham by 1 second with 3:22.5. Great tight race.

CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD - Cardiff City RC J16 boys team did 3:13.4 for the 1000m race. Great result!

J13 races:

Trentham BC won the J13 boys race in 2:54.5 AND the J13 girls race in 3:06.5 - a great race!

J14 races:

The A-Team from Peterborough City RC won the 750m J14 boys with 2:38.0
Maidenhead/ Ross/ Newbury RC combination took the gold in the J14 girls with a time of 2:56.4

Well done all!

The junior team races follow now and they are fun chaotic events, filled with tight racing!

I will not be able to keep up with all of the results but I will push through the highlights.

NEW CHAMPIONSHIP RECORDS:

- J12 girls team Peterborough City RC with 2:10.0 for 1000m
- J11 girls team Bishopsgate A with 2:17.0 for 1000m

This race’s front row was dominated by 1 man and 1 group. Rugby international, and BIRC veteran Garath Archer was in the middle, while he was surrounded by the entirety of the GB heavyweight men’s squad.

During the race, it was Archer to push out the initial lead and get 10m clear from the pack. The pack looked like a defensive line on the screen, no-one ahead of the other until Steve Rowbotham pulled ahead into 2nd in the 2nd 1000m.

After that in the final 500m the pack started to pull back the non-rower with Cameron Nichol muscling his way into second and touching the 1:25s to get into contention with Archer. Nichol was arms the same size as most people’s legs was dragging in Archer in the last 100m, but Archer stayed on to the line.

Archer won in 5:51.1, Nichol 2nd with 5:51.5 and Rowbotham 3rd in 5:52.8.
Archer wins the champion of champions trophy for the quickest race of the day!

It has been a busy 30 minutes at BIRC.

First Men Open Lwt. A really closely contended race here, with all three medallists coming in within a second. Nothing could split the two at the top and it was a joint victory for Stuart Bizarri and Mark Tinkler.

Open Lwt Women. Samanthta Briggs pulled clear and won in a very quick time of 7:18.0, extremely quick for the this category!

Open Hwt women - Debbie Flood really was the star of this race going out hard in the 1:20s from the start before settling into the 1:40s to keep ahead. Although ahead and in charge the pack kept pace and Elena Antonova and Fiona Bassett (Nottingham Rowing Club) raced out hard from the groups and picked up second and third respectively. Debbie Flood though got the biggest cheers of the day with a great race punching in a 6:52.2 with lots of applause!