Inverness Rowing Club oarsman Alan Sinclair was a member of the Aberdeen Boat Club coxed four along with Colin Williamson, Ross Cruikshank, Irla Lewis and Maeve Boyle (cox) which took part in the Britannia Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last week.

Wednesday's first round race was against a seeded crew from Mortlake Anglian & Alpha Boat Club in which the Aberdeen crew had an extremely close encounter over the 2112 metre course. Passing the halfway mark near Remenham Club 1/3rd of a length ahead, they pushed on to record a fine 1 1/4 length win.

In their quarter final, they led the heavier City of Oxford crew by 1 1/2 lengths at the Barrier and increased their lead to 1 3/4 lengths at the finish post.

Their semi-final opponents from the famous Leander Club weighed in at an average 2 stones heavier per man, and this weight advantage had a significant effect on the result.

Leander took an early lead off the start and although Aberdeen challenged strongly all the way down the course, Leander emerged winners by just over 3 lengths and later won the final of the Britannia Challenge Cup on the Sunday beating Thames Rowing Club by approximately 6 lengths.

The Aberdeen crew produced fine performances in all three of their races and now will concentrate their efforts on the coxed four event at the UK National Championships to be held at Nottingham in just over a weeks time.

This coming weekend sees another three Inverness oarspeople competing at Henley when Mandy Towrie, Susanne Standish-Hunter and Hazel Smith are members of Double Sculling and Quadruple Sculling crews at the Henley Masters Regatta with high hopes of achieving medal success.