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Scottish IRC Race Reports

2012 Event Report

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

2011

The 2011 Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships returned to the Centre for Sport and Exercise at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh with over 500 competitors competing in 38 races in 49 event categories. With many clubs unable able to train on the water due to the harsh winter, this year’s championships carried extra impetus.

Virtually every Scottish rowing club was represented and athletes travelled from throughout the UK and as far afield as Chicago, USA and St Petersburg Russia. Talkin Tarn ARC, Berwick ARC and Southampton Solent University BC brought sizable entries from south of the border.

The day’s racing started at 9:30 with the junior events. The first race saw wins in the Under 11 categories for Aaron Bell-O’Hare and Saskia Parsons both racing in their first competition and representing the Backchat Youth Project. The Helensburgh based group offers a wide range of activities with one of the key focuses to promote healthy living.

11 year old Megan Jephcote will have been happy on her long journey back to Ross-on-Wye as she improved on her silver medal in 2010 to win Gold. Jan Meinicke of Strathclyde Park RC posted an amazing distance of 905m in the 3 minutes Boy’s Under 14 Race.

There was a 1-2 finish for the Glasgow Academy pair of Ross Urquart and Ronan Murphy in boy’s Under 19 Hwt.

Kieran Brown (Clydesdale ARC) won the Boy’s Under 19 Lwt Category but the main excitement was in the race for silver between Tome Claxton (Loch Lomond RC) and Gregor Hall (Heriot Watt Uni BC). In the end, nothing could separate them and they both finished with a time of 6:57.9.

The Scottish Championships is unique on the Indoor Rowing Circuit in the range of race distances on offer. The Senior Age Group categories are all raced over 1000m, which encourages close, exciting racing. 72 year-old Eric Davison from Fraserburgh, the Championships oldest competitor, won bronze in the Men’s Over 60 Hwt.

Shaun Callagahan representing Steepholme Pirates had a successful championships winning Gold in Lwt 40-49 and Bronze in the Open Hwt Sprint. It was a busy weekend for Shaun who had competed in the European Indoor Rowing Championships in France only the day before.

The Russian duo of Sergey Suvorov and Evgeny Trofimov also competed at the European Championships and the pair would go on to have a highly successful day in Edinburgh winning 5 medals in total. As well as their individual races they would also team up with Aberdeen BC’s Robert Strachan and Jack Montgomery to form “Edinburgh International” to race in the Men’s Open Team Race.

The standard of the men’s Hwt 30-39 age group was extremely high. Sergey Suvorov, Phil Craze (Team AEGON), and Barry Grieg (Royal Navy IRC) had all previously won medals at the SIRC. The Gold went to Sergey in a blistering time of 2:56.1 ahead of Phil and then Barry.

The Men’s Open Hwt event featured both the Silver and Bronze medallists from the 2010 Championships in the shape of Evgeny Trofimov and Robert Strachan. The event was won by Sean Corrigall in 6:07.0, the fastest 2k of the day. 21 year-old Sean, originally from Orkney but now rowing at Reading Uni RC as part of the GB Rowing Team World Class Start programme, also won the Championships final event the Men’s Open Hwt 500m sprint.

Ruth Dunn from Glasgow Uni was the fastest female competitor of the day with a time of 7:06.1 in the Women’s Open Hwt ahead of Iona Riley (Aberdeen BC) and Catriona Bain (Aberdeen Uni). Beth McMaster pipped her Glasgow RC team mate Joanna Thomson to win the Open Lwt event.

Clydesdale’s Gavin Murty was a comfortable winner in the Men’s Open Lwt with a time of 6:27.1 ahead of the Heriot Watt duo of James Scott and Sebastian Pocachard. James would pick up another Silver in the Open Lwt Sprint, which was won by Andy Hammond of Southampton Solent Uni.

Defending champions Team AEGON faced tough competition in the Men’s Team from the newly formed ‘Edinburgh International’. In a stroke for stroke race Team AEGON took the victory in 5:25.2 just 1.2s ahead of the composite team.

In the women’s team event, Clydesdale ARC won Gold ahead of Berwick ARC and Team AEGON.

The Championships also incorporated the Scottish University Indoor Rowing Championships with the final results of the Victor Ludorum being:

  • =1 Edinburgh 65
  • =1 Heriot Watt 65
  • 3 Glasgow 37
  • 4 Aberdeen 22
  • 5 Robert Gordon 6
  • 6 Stirling 5
  • 7 Strathclyde 3

Scottish Rowing would like to express their thanks to all the volunteers, spectators and competitors for a great day of racing.

Photographs are available from: http://cofd.co.uk/images/Ergo_Champs/Ergo%20Champs%202011/ErgCh11.html and http://www.darrochphotography.ifp3.com/

2010

Over 500 individuals and teams competed at the 2010 Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships held at the Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh on Sunday 31st January 2010. Full results are available in the Results section.

There were a number of notable performances in the Junior Championships including Kerion Brown(Clydesdale ARC) winning both the U17 and the U19lwt boys events and from Emily Colley of Glasgow Academy who won the U16 girls event before later claiming a silver in the Open Women's category.

The fastest individual times for 2km came from Callum McBrierty (George Watson's College) and Karen Benett (Clydesdale ARC), with Callum posting his time in the U19Hwt event and then leading George Watson's College to victory in the U19 Team Event.

Victor Gilbert of Age Without Limits, the Championships oldest competitor at 82 was narrowly pipped for Gold in the over 60Hwt by George Meredith, 61, of Gravesend IRC. George had earlier taken 2nd place in the Lwt category behind John Howie of Midlothian. It was a successful day for the Howie household with Barbara Howie also winning the Women's Adaptive Event.

The team events again proved hugely successful with Team AEGON retaining their title, in the Men's Team, despite strong opposition from Aberdeen Boat Club and HMS Vanguard. A composite of Glasgow based rowing clubs were winners of the Women's Team.

The event also incorporated the Scottish Universities Championships with Strathclyde University's Mike McLaren and Megan Mackie winning the Men's and Women's Open Hwt titles respectively. Megan's result was even more impressive considering she was forced to re-row after a technical problem with her ergo. Heriot Watt University retained the Victor Ludorum, for the most successful club, with consistent point scoring and a clean sweep of wins in the team events.

In addition to the normal races over various distances and times, the Championships played host to a special event in the form of an attempt, by Matthias Auer of Clyde ARC, on the World Lightweight Marathon Record. Matthias amazed the crowd by maintaining a split of 1.47 for almost two hours of rowing, smashing the previous record by over two minutes and recording a time of 2hr 29min 56.7sec.

The Championships concluded with the newly offered 500m sprint category providing a great climax to the day. Indeed the Men's Lwt event saw a dead heat between Shaun Callaghan and Colin Barnet of Team AEGON.

Photographs of the days racing are available at www.darrochphotography.ifp3.com and www.cofd.co.uk.