Loughborough Boat Club
Loughborough Boat Club's Emily Clarke put in a performance at the BUSA Rowing Championships which put her amongst the country's best scullers. The event, held at Nottingham's Holme Pierrepont, attracted over 600 entries from British Universities and Emily was competing in one of the most demanding categories - the Womens' Championship Single Sculls. It was always going to be a tough race with members of the GB squad to compete against but Emily put in an outstanding performance to take home the Bronze Medal. The only scullers to beat Emily to the line were Debbie Flood, the World U23 Champion in Single Sculls and Rosalyn Carslake the World U23 Champion in the Pair. Impressively, Emily was just one length down on Carslake over the 2000m course.
One day earlier, despite atrocious weather conditions at the National Watersports Centre, Clarke and four other members of the Club helped the East Midlands team to win the England Senior Inter-Regional Championships. The conditions were so bad that racing had to be suspended for several hours. Races were eventually run as time trials over 1500m as it was impossible to line all boats up together on the planned 2000m start. The Women’s Quad of stroke Emily Clarke, Fiona Richmond, Rachel Scott and Anna Henderson hit technical difficulties with their boat early in the race but they managed to keep it together and their points were just enough to put the East Midlands into the winning position.
Pauline Barrett joined with rowers from Nottingham Boat Club and from Nottingham and Union to form a composite crew in the Women’s Coxed Fours. Their lack of time together as a crew was certainly not evident as they found a good rhythm in the difficult conditions and came home fourth.