Exeter rowing club masters had a highly successful trip to the British Rowing Masters National Championships in Nottingham. Conditions were interesting with a relatively strong head wind and choppy water.
Saturday saw the championship sculling events. There were hard fought gold medals won by Dave Byrnes and Dani Wall in the Mixed Masters C double, Julia Wood in the Masters E single, Helen Ellison in the Masters B single, and Dave Byrnes and Eleanor Burke in the Mixed Masters D double. The Masters B quad of Eleanor Burke, Lucinda Sanders, Helen Ellison and Lisa Cocks won a silver behind a multi-club composite crew from the south-east. In addition Eleanor Burke won silver in her Masters C single after an appalling start. Finally, Kirstie Ffrench Constant won a well deserved bronze in her first championship Masters E single sculling event. She then followed this up on the Sunday with a gold in the non-championship Masters D-F single sculls.
At the end of the championship sculling events Exeter were second in the Victor Ludorum behind a big Upper Thames squad. Next year we also need to enter some championship sweep events to maintain our position on the second day – mixed eight anyone?