Scottish Indoor Rowing Championship
Image courtesy of Darroch Photography
The 2012 Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships returned to Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh on the 29th January. The 2012 Championships saw a record 425 competitors competing in 40 races in over 7 hours of racing. In all, a total of 658,349m were rowed by the competitors during the course of the Championships.
The first race of the day was a 2 minute race and featured the youngest competitors of the day, with wins for Catriona Morgan and Edwards Wilson (Talkin Tarn ARC) in the Under 11 categories. The first race also featured a dead-heat in the Boy's Under category race with Andrew Cairns (Berwick ARC) and Fergus Mainland (George Watson's College) tied on 499m.
More exciting races were to follow.
16 Year-old Lewis McCue of ASRA produced one of the stand-out performances of the day with a highly impressive 6:27.2 for 2,000m. A time that would have ranked him comfortably in the top 10 of all senior athletes.
Strathclyde Park RC had a number of successes throughout the day including Pauline McGovern (Girl's U19), Jan Meinicke (Boy's U15) Graham Ord (Boy's U17) and Natalie Irvine (Women's Hwt).
ASRA won both the Boy's and Girls Under 19 Team events but were denied the full sweep of the team events by George Watson's College, who won the Under 15 mixed event. ASRA also further success in the individual Open events with Christie Duff winning Women’s Open Lwt.
As well as competing for the coveted Championships medals, all competitors received a silicone wrist band, the colour of which indicated how fast their performance had been.
Unique to the Scottish Championships the Senior Age Group events are raced over 1,000m
Robert Strachan of Aberdeen BC beat Sergi Suvorov of Marine Technical by under 1s in the Men's Over 30 Hwt. The pair would later team-up along with Evgenii Trofimov and Duncan Brown to race in the Men's Team event as Aberdeen International. Alison Inglis of Berwick RC was winner of Women's Over 40s Hwt ahead of club mate Hilary Cairns. Milos Hunek of VK Smichov, Czech Republic, winner of Men’s Over 40hwt, was one of a number of International competitors including Germany, Russia and the USA.
In the women's adaptive races Caroline MacDonald of Tees RC won the Women's Arm/Shoulders in what is believed to be a World Best Time for 1km of 4:36.4
Anke Molkenthin of Waginer Ruderverien, Germany/ won the Women's LTA category and was also the winner of the Women's Over 40s Lwt.
2011 Champion, Orkney-born, 6ft 9in Sean Corrigall, representing Molesey BC defended his Men’s Open title with a highly impressive 6:03.0, the quickest time ever recorded at the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships. Sean also posted a lightning quick 1:17.3 to win the 500m sprint event.
The Men’s Team competition saw a rematch of between 2011 winners Team AEGON and runners-up Aberdeen International. Despite staying close for the first 1000m the Aberdeen International were comfortable winners in the end with a strong time of 5:23.8. The Women’s team event was a battle between two North of England clubs with Talkin Tarn just pipping Berwick ARC. The Championships also included the Scottish University Championships.
Edinburgh University won 3 of the individual categories including Men's Lwt and both Men's and Women's Fresher events. They also had success in the team races winning Senior Men’s and both of the University Fresher although Heriot Watt University's senior women were victorious in the Senior Women’s race, ahead of Aberdeen University in second place.
These performances ensured Edinburgh were the run-away winners of the Victor Ludorum, for the most successful university club, with hosts Heriot Watt having to relinquish the title they have held for the past 4 years.
Thanks to all the competitors and volunteers who made the Championships so successful.
Images of the Championships are available at darrochphotography.ifp3.com/ and cofd.co.uk
