Loughborough Boat Club
Medal Glory for Boat Club
Loughborough Boat Club made a brilliant debut at the World Masters Regatta in Hazewinkel, Belgium, returning with two gold medals.
The annual event held on the eight lane 1,000m course attracted thousands of rowers from 37 different countries including Australia and South America and included former Olympic and World Championship medallists.
Races at the event took place in all age groups ranging from the minimum age 27 to crews of rowers in their 80s.
Loughborough joined forces with neighbours Leicester Rowing Club in some of the women's events and it was this combination that led to the two gold medals.
Three Loughborough rowers, Tess Gaunt, Anna Henderson and Rachel Scott, together with Leicester's Sally Horrocks, gained an emphatic eight second victory over Holland in the Women's Veteran A Coxless Four.
These four were joined by other Leicester rowers Phil Harrison, Ruth Thomas, Fiona Richmond, Lis Pulford, together with cox Kate Litherland, in a hard fourth Women's Veteran A Eights.
In a very exciting race, the girls rowed tremendously, keeping a composed pace to half distance and then putting in a tremendous surge that cracked the field and brought them home nearly a length clear of the second placed German boat.
Henderson nearly picked up a third gold in a Veteran A Single Sculls but had to settle for silver after a nail biting finish. In the Veteran B Coxed Fours, Caroline Lomax, Jo Coulson, Mary Carswell and Leicester's Ruth Thomas gained a well earned third place while Jerome Mason, Neil Martin, Keith Hudson and Simon Hill came fourth in the men's race, both boats being coxed by Charlie Horner.
Other club rowers Neil Martin and Kevin Carswell joined the crews to compete in the Men's Veteran C Fours and Men's and Mixed Veteran B Eights and in total, over a dozen club members had a chance to enjoy their first taste of international competition.
"Competing in Belgium is the culmination of lots of hard work and organisation and taking part has been tremendous" said Club Captain Keith Hudson.
"It just shows that there are international opportunities in rowing whatever your age. It has been a great experience for the club" he added.