Sara Johnstone and Heather Gordon won brilliant bronze medals in the J16 Girls Double Sculls event at the British Junior Rowing Championships in Nottingham on Sunday 16th July. They had already shown their significant potential in their earlier 1500 metre time trial on the previous day by claiming second fastest time in an entry of eighteen other crews which included a number of crews who were ranked higher than them in the recent GB/France Trials.

Last year Sara and Heather came 9th in the J15 Double Sculls event in the British Championships and this year are Scottish Champions and 3rd best crew in Britain.

Rosie Young and Lucy Faulkner competed in the J18 Girls Double Sculls, coming 22nd out of 28 entries which placed them in the D Final of this event. Their final turned into a nail-biting race with Runcorn RC who led all the way down the 2000 metre course, always overlapping with the Inverness crew who never gave in. It came down to the last few metres and the Inverness crew found that extra bit of energy to surge across the line just a few metres ahead of Runcorn. That was their first ever 2000 metre race and as Rosie said afterwards ‘’ that was the hardest I’ve ever rowed’’. Their winning performance moved their ranking from 22nd to 19th overall.

The third competing Inverness sculler was Rebecca Setford in the J18 girls Single Sculls event. Racing against a gusty headwind Rebecca achieved a creditable 23rd place in her time trial out of 43 crews. Her 2000 metre D Final included no less than four much larger Reading RC scullers all members of the GB Fast Start Programme , and Rebecca as a lightweight sculler. In the prevailing headwind, she held her time trial position and managed to improve one place beating one Fast Start sculler.

Rebecca will be going to Glasgow University in September where she plans to join Glasgow University Boat Club. Lucy will be going to St Andrews University and hopefully continue her rowing career there.