On Sunday 1st February, a significant entry was received and many exciting races took place at the Scottish Indoor Rowing Championships which again were held at Heriot Watt University campus at Riccarton on the western outskirts of the Edinburgh.

Inverness was represented by an enthusiastic party of athletes from both Inverness Rowing Club and Inverness Royal Academy who achieved considerable success at these championships, returning north with a total of six medals.

Mother and daughter Carole and Rachael Wells performed well to achieve a full house of medals with gold for Carole in womens open event whilst Rachael collected silver and bronze for the girls under 15 event and the womens under 19 event respectively. Eilean Mackenzie also competed in the girls event and narrowly missed a medal position. In the girls under 14 event, Beth Dempster, Natalie Roberts and Sally Wiseman also performed exceptionally well in a strong field, just missing out on medal positions.

Academy pupil Corrin Mackenzie challenged strongly in the boys under 16 event and was rewarded with a fine bronze medal result. Thomas Barras, Daniel Mackenzie and Christopher Taylor recorded personal best times in the boys under 17 event which was a fine achievement for boys recently introduced to indoor rowing.

Both boys and girls groups challenged strongly in the exciting team boys and girls relay events achieving highly satisfactory bronze medal positions in each event.

The following weekend saw three Inverness crews travelling to Aberdeen on Sunday to take part in the Aberdeen Eights Head on the waters of the River Dee. Although favourable water conditions were confirmed on the previous day, a severe overnight frost generated ice flows on the Sunday morning cancelling the event just as the Inverness contingent arrived in Aberdeen following a difficult journey over snowbound roads. However, after savouring the delights of the famous Aberdeen steak pies, the party returned safely to Inverness through snowbound countryside bathed in brilliant sunshine.