Inverness Rowing Club achieved considerable success in winning eight gold medals and many other good performances at the two day Strathclyde Park Regatta in Hamilton last weekend in variable weather conditions.

In the difficult windy conditions on Saturday, a number of fine performances were achieved by Inverness crews in various events. Tom Baker and Alastair Duff won gold in veteran double sculls and with Dave Rothwell, John Sharkey and well coxed by Shaun Hunter won veteran coxed fours. Rachael Wells sculled strongly to win gold in the Womens Junior Under 15 single sculls and was later joined by her clubmate Meghan Hunter and Catlin Horsburgh, Emma Brander and Emma McDonald from Castle Semple RC to record a convincing win in Womens Junior Under 14 coxed quadruple sculls ahead of a crew from Aberdeen Schools Rowing Association.

In the slightly calmer conditions on the Sunday, the Inverness junior squad members Rozy Shepherd (bow), Kirsty Guild, Rachael Wells, Meghan Hunter (stroke), and Susanne Standish-Hunter (cox) recorded a fine win by a mere 0.02 seconds over a crew from George Watsons College in the semi-final of the Womens Novice coxed quadruple sculls and won the final by two seconds ahead of a senior crew from Durham ARC. Also winning gold on Sunday were the Womens veteran coxed four of Caroline Keith (bow), Mandy Towrie, Hazel Geddes, Hazel Smith (stroke0 and Jonny Harvey (cox) who achieved a five second win over another crew from Durham ARC. Alastair Duff achieved his third gold of the weekend in Mens veteran single sculls whilst John Sharkey and Dave Rothwell each claimed their second golds in Mens veteran coxless pairs.

Other Inverness junior and senior members also achieved highly satisfactory performances over the two day regatta although just failing to get into gold medal positions, whilst two expatriate members now resident in Glasgow also achieved success in the regatta. Imogen Walsh sculled to gold in the Womens lightweight single sculls and was a member of the Clyde ARC crew which won the Womens coxless fours event on Saturday. Colin Sinclair, now at Strathclyde University, won Mens novice single sculls on Saturday and on Sunday won the Scottish Universities Championships mens second single sculls and stroked the Strathclyde crew to a nailbiting 0.06 second win in the Scottish Universities Championships mens second eights event.

The next main season regatta at which Inverness athletes will be competing will be the North East Regatta which takes place on the River Dee in Aberdeen on 9th/10th May.