On Sunday 11th February, over 300 competitors took part in the Scottish Amateur Rowing Association Open Indoor Rowing Championships which were held at the Timecapsule Leisure Centre in Coatbridge.
Competition was keen in the wide variety of age categories and some excellent performances were recorded, particularly in the younger age groups.
Inverness Rowing Club were represented by the two Sinclair brothers from Belmaduthy with Colin taking part in the Junior 18 section and Alan, a student at Aberdeen University and a member also of Aberdeen University Boat Club, competing in the Under 23 Heavyweight section. Colin produced a personal best time of 7 minutes 2.2 seconds securing his Silver medal with his strong finishing burst, whilst Alan also finished strongly in his event but narrowly missed a medal position with a satisfactory time of 6 minutes 34.4 seconds.
Also taking part from Inverness in the Mens over 40 section was Rick Wells who put up a sound performance in recording a time of 7 minutes 8.5 seconds against some highly competent opposition. His daughter Rachel outshone her Dad in the Womens Junior 12 event in which she convincingly won her Gold medal with a distance of 515 metres in the 2 minute race. Sarah Cameron also took part in this race finishing with a fine fourth place with a distance of 432 metres. Rachel also later achieved a creditable 2nd place finish against much older opposition in the Womens Open Lightweight event

Next Saturday poses to be a very busy weekend on the Caledonian Canal in Inverness on the Saturday with the Tenon Eights and Small Boats Head in two divisions, one starting at 12 noon and the second at 2.30pm. Crews from all over Scotland will compete in this event together with mens and womens crews from the home club. Prior to that at 10am, the cream of Scottish Rowing take to the water in the National Squad Time Trial with Junior and Senior athletes challenging for places in the Scottish team for the forthcoming international regattas during the summer racing season