1 ISR Wg World Masters and JSR

1ISR Wg World Masters and JSR

RAF Masters Rowing has proven that it is in a very healthy state this year, competing at multiple regattas, culminating in very competitive performances at the World Rowing Masters Championships at Libourne, France and then followed up with a successful showing at the Joint Service Regatta.

The journey to Libourne started during COVID. The Masters E 4-, under the expert coaching of Sqn Ldr Kath Linton, led the way committing to a gruelling training regime which included a first venture into the world of stretching and warming up properly, going so far as to indulge in yoga at times! All the rowers spent a lot of lonely, dark hours on the rowing machines over the winter, waiting for the better conditions to return to get back on the water.

But all the hard work over winter yielded results. The regatta season started well, with competitive performances in the singles, doubles, fours and eight at Nottingham Masters, including a win for the Masters Doubles for Chf Tech Andy May and 1 ISR Wing’s Flt Lt Matty Parle.

Success continued at Peterborough Regatta and Henley Town and visitor’s regatta, neither with silverware but both provided rare opportunities to get the crews together from the dispersed home stations to build boat speed in preparation for the main events at the end of the year.

Weather cancelled the second Peterborough regatta of the year, with a low water level meaning the competition couldn’t run, which would have been the final outing before the World Championships.

So it was September, Libourne beckoned, and a 650 mile road trip in the High Wycombe SIF minibus towing a full trailer. A team of 4 drove the boats

down while the rest made their own way, meeting up at the venue on the Tuesday before the competition started at Wednesday lunch time. Any more training now was pointless, there was just time to get the boats ready and have a couple of laps of the course before racing began in earnest. Well, there was enough time for a few cheeky races against each other, but no one kept score (2-0 to us!)

The first RAF race was Sqn Ldr Chris Morrill and Cpl Mike Yeomans in the MasD Double, a competitive race in beautiful conditions. This was the beginning of a day and a half of great racing, including an eight which was an amazing battle between the RAF and a Spanish crew for 5th place. Silverware is very hard to come by at this level but good races happen at all stages. Success did come, however for SAC Lou Elkington of 7010 R Sqn, winning 2 golds in the Double and the pair with her rowing partner Dawn from Newark Rowing Club. Sadly, we were unable to compete from Friday onwards due to the sad passing of her Majesty the Queen. Our adventure was cut short for the worst possible reason, but representative sport would resume in time for us to take on the Army and the Navy in the Joint Service Regatta (JSR) later in the month.

JSR took place at Peterborough Rowing Club, a fantastic location which allows rowers from across the Services to compete in multi-lane racing over a 1000m course.

Early indications were positive for the RAF, with wins in a number of the morning’s

events, including the Masters Men’s Single and Double Sculls, followed by wins in the Women’s Double Sculls, Quad and Mixed Coxed Four. The RAF was really making a statement of intent and as lunch approached, there was no let up for the first two IS events. With the Men reclaiming the IS Quad from the Army and the Women claiming the Double Sculls. This meant that, going into lunch, the RAF had already taken back the two IS events lost last year and were well on their way to another dominant performance!

Following lunch, the Army were able to make some inroads and did claim wins in some of the Men’s Improver events and also the Men’s Open Scull. However, the RAF Women continued to outperform their service colleagues, picking up win after win. The afternoon also saw the closest race of the day, with the Army and RAF going down to the wire for the win in the Men’s Coxed Four, with the Army winning by a photo finish!

Approaching the end of the day, it was clear the RAF had retained its crown as the overall Event Champions. Now the only question was, would they be able to win a clean sweep of the IS events?

The Women’s Coxed Four was up first and provided a fantastic race from start to finish. The Army crew took an early lead, only for the RAF crew to come back at them, taking the lead by half distance and keeping it all the way to the finish for the win. This set the precedent for the final event of the day, the Men’s IS Eight. Again, the race did not disappoint, with the RAF gaining an early but uncommanding lead over the other two services. However, under some pressure, the RAF crew kept their composure and held off a late push from the Army to retain their title.

With the final two IS events won, the RAF topped off a hugely impressive day, by winning all 4 of the IS events, something which hasn’t been done for over 20 years, whilst also securing 12 wins out of a total of 21, with the Army picking up 8 and the Navy collecting 1. Ensuring the RAF picked up where they left off in 2021 as overall JSR Champions. A trend they will look to continue at next year’s event!

For more information on rowing in the RAF, please contact the RAF Rowing Club via the following methods: your local PEd Flt, the website at www.rafsportsfederation.uk/ sports/raf-rowing-association or the RAFRA Moss portal. The RAF Rowing Club can also be followed on Twitter via @ RAF_Rowing_Club.