Rowing to Success 

The British Rowing Junior Inter Regional Regatta

The British Rowing Junior Inter Regional Regatta took place at the National Watersports Centre in Nottingham. Each of the 10 British Rowing regions selected a team and raced at the regatta. All races took place over a 1500m multi land regatta course off stake boats. 

Olivia Hodgson qualified in the Women’s Junior 16 Single Scull for West Midlands, whilst Olivia raced for the region she also represented her club, RGS Worcester. 

In her heat Olivia had a strong start and pushed hard to race through into second place behind Thames London, a sculler from Barn Elms Boat Club. This performance qualified Olivia into the A final later in the day. 

Olivia’s heat was the faster of the two heats. After the race we went back to the trailer, debriefed and looked at the race plan for the final. 

Olivia executed the plan brilliantly in the final. She stayed touch with her opposition off the start, made more of the middle of the race and then sprinted hard for the finish going from 2nd to 1st in the last few strokes. Olivia crossed the line 2.15 seconds ahead of the Barm Elms sculler from the heat to take gold in a time of 7:06.09. Jessica Eddie, Olympic Silver medalist from the Women’s Eight presented Olivia with her medal.  

This was an excellent achievement and a great start to the regatta season. 

Rowing Regattas

RGS Rowers had an extremely busy weekend at three competitions: 

The weekend started with Evesham Regatta where RGS Worcester won three events. The WJ16 1x of Olivia Hodgson, WJ16 2x of Olivia Hodgson and Lucy Whiteley and the WJ15 2x Band Two of Zoe Pope and Hollyanna Hopkins.

RGS Worcester won the most races throughout the day. This meant we won the Victor Ludorum and were presented with an engraved plate and a cheque for £250.00.

The rest of the weekend was spent at Dorney Lake. On Sunday at Wallingford Regatta the Boys quad of Matthew Smith, Tobey Butler, Benjamin Koutrouki and Harry Rutter raced well and made improvements at the Junior Sculling Regatta the next day.

In total 5 crews raced at the Junior Sculling Regatta on Monday. They were the Open J18 Quadruple Sculls, Open and Womens J15 quadruple sculls, Womens J18 single scull and the Womens J16 single scull. All of the crews learnt a huge amount from their races and rowed at their best.

Olivia Hodgson qualified for the A final in fifth place after the time trial and won a bronze medal behind Claire’s Court and Barn Elms.

Head of Rowing, Mr Tim Messent