Issue 94 - December 1996

Ol' red-eyes Greg is back

Greg Searle, the world record holder, brought eight hours of competition to a noisy climax by taking the Perpetual British Indoor Rowing Championships title at the Rivermead Leisure Complex in Reading. Searle's time, 5 mins. 54 secs., was ten seconds outside his world record but was a full seven seconds better than his nearest rival, Tim Foster, his crewmate in the Atlanta coxless four who is ensconced in the ranks of the Oxford Boat Race squad. All bar three of the ten final qualifiers came from the Oxford and Cambridge squads, understandable perhaps at a time of year when they tend to be further advanced in training, and all bar four were not British.

Oxford, apart from the Brits Foster and Stuart Mucklow, fielded Italians and a Croatian, Luka Grubor, who came in third, while Cambridge's four finalists hailed from Canada, South Africa, Austria and America, although their American, the new President Ethan Ayer, withdrew due to illness after the semi-final. Jonny Searle finished last of the eight who actually raced.

The women's championship final was, in contrast, purely domestic and the top position came down to a battle royal between Cath Bishop, from the 'engine room' of the women's Olympic eight, and Guin Batten, Britain's Olympic sculls finalist. Bishop looked to have the race won at 1500 metres with a comfortable lead and a ten kilogram weight advantage, but Batten upped and upped the rate in the closing stages and was just one second behind at the finish of a great contest.

One of the star performances of the day came from Simon Dennis of IC, who won the Under 23 class, producing his first ever sub-6 minute performance when he overhauled Leander's Norwegian find, Tom Westerling, in the latter stages. The times of both of these would have put them amongst the medals in the open category.

René Mijnders, Oxford's new Dutch coach, must also have been pleased with the performances of his men in the under 23 class since the third to sixth places were filled by Dark Blue contenders to add to the silver and bronze achieved in the open class. To add icing to his cake, two of his new boys this year, Alex Cooper, an Eton product, and Nick Robinson, from Hampton, filled the second and third spots in the junior championships behind established British junior star Chris Hugill.

Cindy Rip, part of Mijnders's former Dutch team when she won a bronze world medal in 1993, led home Britain's top performer, Jane Hall, in the women's lightweights. Elise Laverick, a Nations Cup medallist last summer, eased out Alison Trickey of IC in the under-23s to be the only woman from a large and a high class Thames RC female entry to take a gold.

The sixth British Indoor Championships received its biggest ever entry, knocking the 900 mark, and was clearly 'for all'. Many competitors were purely 'indoor' performers, and some won, and the age range went from 79 to 10, some of the well-received younger ones being blind enthusiasts.

Perpetual British Indoor Champs

Women
Open: 1. C Bishop (Marlow): 6:46; 2. G Batten (Thames): 6:47; 3. K Giles (Thames): 7:02. Open Lightweight: 1. C Rip (Netherlands): 7.15; 2. J Hall (Westminster Sch.): 7:21; 3. T Langlands (Thames): 7:25. Under 23: 1. E Laverick (Thames): 7:08; 2. A Trickey (IC): 7:09; 3. B Woolf (Thames): 7:16. Senior: S Larcombe (unattached): 6:56; Senior Lightweight: N Dale (Tideway Scullers): 7:10; Masters: P Cook (Coppid Beech): 7:41; Veteran: C Gallie (Launceston): 8:16.

Junior Men
Junior: 1. C Hugill (NCRA): 6:10.2; 2. A Cooper (Isis): 6:10.6; 3. N Robinson (Isis): 6:13. Junior Lightweight: A Hambrook (London): 6:40; J16: T White (Eton): 6:28; J15: I Vanhegan (Westminster): 6:37; J14: J Alexander (Kingston Gr.): 6:57; J13: G Botterill (Hayle): 7:07.

Junior Women
Junior: 1. H Little (Enniskillen): 7:19; 2. M Hirsch (IC): 7:23; 3. L Redknapp (Kingston Gr.): 7:26. J16: R Panter (Kings, Worcester): 7:41; J15: S Black (Kingston Gr.): 7:45; J14: E Boldy (City of Cambridge): 8:34.

© Copyright Mike Rosewell, 1996.