Loughborough Boat Club
The River Severn at Stourport provided the setting for some more winter head race wins for Loughborough Boat Club. The Women’s Senior 3 Quad of stroke Katja Lange, Katy Williams and Caroline Lomax, confidently steered by Marie Guingouain at bow, completed the 4,500 metre course in 12mins 58secs just two seconds ahead of local club Stourport. In her first race back after many months out through injury, Emily Clarke still managed to win the Women’s Elite Single Sculls in 14mins 10secs.
These five winning team members were joined by Jo Coulson, Heather Heylings, Lucinda Bowden and cox Carly Bilsborough in the Women’s Senior 3 Eight to come home as the fastest women’s boat of the day in a time of 12mins 26secs.
Another single scull victory came in the Women’s Veteran C category when Perse Wynn got the winning time. Nick Logan and Nick Firth were unlucky in the Men’s Novice Double event when they missed out by just five seconds to first placed Bradford on Avon.
Emily Clarke continued to test her return to fitness by taking part in the trials for the Great Britain squad held at Boston, where she still managed to come 22nd out of the 32 entrants. Sarah Mee carried on her excellent performance in this last of a series of three open trials when she came 4th in the Under 23 Lightweights and now has to wait to hear if she has been successful in gaining selection for the squad.
Women’s Coach George Jones praised Mee and Clarke for their determination and commitment, "It is incredibly hard work to achieve selection for the GB squad and it is also so easy for things to go wrong through injury so we are very pleased that Sarah and Emily have performed so well."