Split loyalties for Nottingham rowers
Nottingham Rowing Club’s Tina Stiller, already nominated as the Olympic spare sculler/rower will contest the women’s single scull event at the U23 World Rowing Championships in Brandenberg. Heats begin on the 17th of July.
Finals will be raced on Sunday July 20th. This regatta was established in 1976 with the aim of providing a stepping stone to the elite level for young rowers. Initially it was called the Match de Seniors and took on full Championship status in 2005.
Jacqui Round from South Notts College and also a member of Nottingham Rowing Club, will row in in the women’s coxless fours. Both Tina and Jacqui ran after-school indoor rowing clubs during the winter as part of the Rushcliffe Schools Indoor Rowing Project. Pupils on that scheme are now progressing onto the water and forming a Sunday afternoon Academy on the River Trent, led by ARA Community Coach Jim Waller. They are due to hold a splash regatta on the Trent soon.
‘We are delighted to see the girls in Germany racing at a high standard but it does mean that they are not available for our own National Championships, at Holme Pierrepont which is their home water, and on the same week-end’ said Club President Keith Atkinson, ‘I well remember attending a conference on behalf of the ARA in France when I thought we had solved this problem. Clearly not, although my French may not have been as good as I thought it was,’ he concluded.
Germany will host 792 rowers for the 2008 U23 World Rowing Championships.This is the highest athlete participation in the event since it acquired World Rowing Championships status in 2005. There are 54 nations sending teams to the event. There are over 300 crews with the single scull events having the largest entry.
Nottingham Rowing Club
