2010

While everybody shivered outside due to the arctic conditions, the atmosphere was red hot in the hall of Channel View Leisure Centre for the fifteen Welsh Indoor Rowing Championships.

A total of 410 individual competitors and 37 teams of four battled it over eight and half hours of competition to become crowned Welsh Champions.

It all kicked off with the Men's Under 23 event, boosted in numbers by the inclusion of the BUCS Indoor Challenge, which resulted in six Universities being represented from Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor, UWE, UWIC, and Southampton Solent University.

Despite the additional numbers of students, Cardiff University maintained there dominance of this event with a clean sweep of the medals with James Magee leading his colleagues home in 6:20.7

A new event to the race schedule was introduced this year in the form of the fresher's category, which is for 1st year rowers in University and Josh Bugajski, Cardiff University won in convincing style in 6:14.4. Richard Boyden made the journey from Southampton worthwhile taking 2nd place in 6:35.2 from a joint third place between Dave Bell and Jeremy Littlejohn both of Cardiff University in 6:44.5.

The fourth race of the day brought the ladies to the machines with Hari James convincingly winning the women's open category in 7:36.2 by the largest winning margin of all the female races.

Cardiff Universities Ali Ancora achieved a very respectable 7:18.0 in taking the women's under 23 title from Steph Jacques, Bangor University in 7:29.7. The introduction of the fresher's races certainly provided productive in regards to entries with 44 women in the next event, with Georgina Thompson just holding off her colleague Lauren O'Neill from University West of England in a time of 7:44.1.

Ben Gittus-Smith, Stratford Upon Avon broke the welsh record in the under 23 lightweight event, which had stood as one of the longest held records since 2001 in a time of 6:27.4, again leading home two athletes from Cardiff University, Tom Hayward and Tom Campbell.

In the women's equivalent Jess Wood also from Cardiff University took the title in convincing style in a time of 7:42.5. In the same race Jen Salter Cardiff won 30+Lwt in 8:01.6.

Adam Scrivner, City of Cambridge RC set the joint fastest time of the day of 6:12.7 in taking the 30+ title from Sergey Suvorov from St Petersburg, Russia who without doubt travelled the furtherist to compete in Cardiff. Ben Redman also City of Cambridge RC made it a double celebration by taking the 30+Lwt title in 6:48.8.

Race No. 12 contained the majority of the Men's lightweight classes, with Cardiff City RC Andy Davies setting a respectable time of 6:26.2 for the Open category, Shaun Callaghan, Steepholme Pirates, 6:41.4 took the 40+Lwt, Keith Hiley, St John's Sports Club, Worcester took 50+Lwt and David Aldridge, Reading taking the 60+ Lwt title.

The Men's Open Event was probably one of the most exciting races of the day, with the crowd on its feet to witness Evgenii Trofimov from St Petersburg Russia, eventually taking the honours after swapping the lead with Matthew Vanstone who recently took the bronze medal at BIRC a month earlier. Evgenii equalled the fastest time of the day in 6:12.7 and just scrapped home less than second quicker than Matthew. In the same race Mark Savage Llandaff RC took the J17 category in 6:56.2.

Josie Hundson, Bridgend who has only recently taken up the sport won the 30+ category in 7:41.3. Rosie Jeffrey made the long journey from Lyme Regis worthwhile by taking the 40+ category in 8:00.3 and Marjorie Roome, Sub 7 London, took the 50+ category again in 7:58.3. In the lightweight category Jenny Fifield, Burry Port just squeezed home in front of Glenys Rugman, Cardiff City RC in a time of 8:36.8.

Rhian Jinny-Jones, Abergavenny took the Open Lightweight title for the second year running in a time of 7:34.6.

Robin Sweet, Celtic Manor, beat Michael Clissold, Barry for the 50+ title in 6:47.0 with all three medallists under the 7-minute mark. John Poland, City of Swansea convincingly won the 60+ title in the biggest winning margin of the male competitors in a time of 7:09.8, some 41 seconds clear of second place, while Charles Morley, Sutton Coldfield retained his title again in the 70+ category in a time of 9:36.1.

In the last 2k race of the day Michael Stevens, Somerset posted a very quick time of 6:18.8 to take the 40+ title.

Although the Welsh Schools Indoor Championships was held the previous day, nearly 60 youngsters battled it out for the junior categories from 11 to 15 years old, which gave the seniors a little rest bit before the 500 metre sprints.

Although there weren't many age categories in the sprints nearly fifty individuals ripped into the machines with the quickest time of the day going to Sergey Suvorov from Russia in a time of 1:19.2. The quickest lady was Hari James completing a 2k and sprint double in 1:36.3.

And so finally to the team events were nearly 40 teams battled it out for the honours in 7 events. Jon Goodall after his titanic efforts with the microphone over the last two days managed to find himself in Russian Lycra and anchored home his new teammates, Sergey & Evgenii, in 8:11.5, nearly 30 seconds of second placed Taff Attack Racing. In the women's open event Llandaff RC scrapped home by nearly 2 seconds from two Pro PT Academy Swansea teams. In the University events Cardiff Men's just pipped Swansea again by just under 2 seconds, while in the women's event Swansea managed to overturn the decision in their favour by three seconds.

So after nearly eight and a half hours of racing on the second day, the hall was returned to normal, the competitors some with medals ventured outside in the freezing cold to commence their journey home. Another fantastic day of racing on time apart from the last two team races, a real credit to the organisers and competitors alike who helped achieve this. Special thanks to, Jon Goodall, the staff of Cardiff Harbour Authority Water Activity Centre, the numerous volunteers who willingly provided there services and particularly Simon Larkin from Concept2 who never seems to get flustered despite all the stress keeping the race system flowing smoothly.