Loughborough Boat Club
The picturesque setting of the Ironbridge gorge proved to be a successful location for Loughborough Boat Club’s latest regatta challenge. Marie Guingouain took her tally of regatta wins into double figures as she notched up two wins over the two-day event. On the Saturday, over the longer 1000 metre course, Guingouain found her toughest competition in the very first round when she came up against Vincent from Worcester in the Women’s Senior 3 Single Sculls. The Worcester sculler had a slight advantage as the two came into the last 200 metres but Guingouain turned on the power to take a quarter length lead by the finishing line. More comfortable victories followed in the semi-final and then in the final against Power of Eton Exelsior where Guingouain won by over a length.
Guingouain’s second victory of the weekend came on the Sunday over the shorter 500 metre sprint course when she took her place in the number three seat of the Women’s Senior 2 Coxed Fours with stroke Caroline Lomax, Jo Coulson at two and Mary Carswell at bow, coxed by Kevin Carswell. Winning through to the final by beating Derby and Bewdley B gave them a chance to reverse the outcome of Saturday’s racing when they had lost to the Bewdley A crew. The Loughborough four got off to a blistering start and managed to edge a few feet ahead of the Bewdley boat. As they came into the last 150 metres they put in a powerful push and took half a length out of their rivals by the line.
Keith Hudson at stroke, Andy Martin, Simon Hill and Neil Martin, coxed by Danny Martin, also found themselves up against a Bewdley crew in the final of the Men’s Veteran B Coxed Four. Having been involved in Saturday’s closest race when they lost by only one foot to Bewdley they repeated the exercise on Sunday but this time managed to win by just one foot over Leicester.
Two of the Club’s junior members had their first taste of racing during the weekend event when Georgina Barney entered the Women’s Novice Single Sculls and Iain Stewart raced in the J14 Single Sculls.