Sudbury International Regatta

By Sarah Watson

City rowers took home 4 wins and 2 second places on Saturday, where they competed over the Bendy course of the River Stour at the Sudbury International Regatta.

Gemma Singleton, Keely Watson, Hayley Shipton and Sarah Watson took home 2 wins from the event, after sprinting to victory in the Women’s eight and then later going on to win their coxless quad.

In the quad they competed 650 metres upstream where they faced some challenging bends, but crossed the line 1/2 a boat length ahead of Broxbourne Rowing Club in their semi final, then won against Maidstone Invicta Rowing Club in the final by 3 lengths.

In the eight they competed over the shorter 350 metre course, where they joined Lily-Rose Mace, Lucy Gauntlett, Harriet White, Alice Broadbent and cox Peggy Papworth to win their heat by 2 lengths ahead of X-Press Boat club, their semi-final just by a canvas ahead of Lea Rowing club, then beat Maidstone in the final by 1/4 of a boat length, each winning Sudbury’s signature hip flask.

Chris Elder won the Open singles event over the longer course, where he won the semi final by 1 1/4 length ahead of St Ives Rowing club, then went on to win his final against a Sudbury sculler on their home turf.

Elder also jumped in the coxes seat to join super scullers Shirlyn Gathoni, Victoria Williams, Tamzin Jones, Claire Widdowson who finished second in the Women’s novice coxed quad.

The final win was by Debbie Hunt-Pain, Nickie Livett, Mandy Walters, Andy Merchant and cox Wiktoria Szubzda who beat club mates Denise Parker, Anne Grange, Anne Casey, Libby Mitchell and cox Theo Bailey in the Women’s Masters E coxed fours.

Also on Saturday was the Henley qualifiers which was held at Dorney lake over a 1900 metre time trial. The coxless quad of Charlotte Bolton, Harriet Drake-Lee, Ella Darlington & Ellie Cooke did exceptionally well, as out of the 14 crews in their category they finished in the top 7 which qualified them for the Henley Royal Regatta on 11-15th August, where they will be competing for the Junior Women’s Diamond Jubilee Cup.