Upper Thames women’s squad wins Victor Ludorum at World Rowing Masters Regatta

September 15, 2017

The 45th World Rowing Masters Regatta took place between 6 and 10 September on Lake Bled

Lake Bled at night during the World Rowing Masters Regatta

Over 840 masters rowers from Britain made the trip to Bled for the 45th World Rowing Masters Regatta between 6 and 10 September. The large contingent from Britain helped make the Regatta the biggest ever with 4,750 rowers from 40 countries racing 18,000 seats over the four day regatta.

With a three minute interval race programme from 07:00 to 19:00 and over 900 races there was plenty to watch on the water with some outstanding performances across the age categories.

For the first time, World Rowing had a club trophy where points were awarded to club race finish positions for women and men. Every place counted for points, so as well as going for gold, rowers were also competing for the highest finish position.

Upper Thames Rowing club, with a talented line up of ten rowers, won the women’s trophy. Over the four day regatta, the women’s squad from Upper Thames raced up to ten times each in various different age categories and boat combinations.

Helen Mangan, one of the winners of the Victor Ludorum with Upper Thames RC said: “It was an absolutely euphoric result! This was just so exciting, the buzz and feeling was fantastic. It was a whole club effort. It was about dedicated teamwork across our group from the men’s and women’s squads.”

The winning Upper Thames RC women’s squad was Amanda Hyne, Louise Wymer, Miriam Luke, Judith Burne, Beatrice Searle, Sally Pollok-Morris, Helen Mangan, Jo Wilby, Elise Cope and Naomi Ashcroft.

The winning team from Upper Thames Rowing Club

The winning team of the VL from Upper Thames Rowing Club

In the men’s event, London based Quintin Boat Club came in second place with 343 points behind a large team from Dynamo Moscow rowing club who took the Victor Ludorum with over 1,000 points.

The fifteen-man team was made up of Steve Aquilina, Graham Bagnall, Tom Bishop, Andrew Bramah, John Ferrario, Jonathan Ferris, Roger Hine, Ian Hyslop, Fred Jefferies, Huw Jones, Bruce Lamka, Richard Lonergan, Pete Meaney, Geoff Peel and Andy Tompkins and coxswains Hilary Cook, Lawrence Edwards, Laura Grennan-Heaven, Fergus Robertson and Helena Smalman Smith.

Pictured below, Quintin Boat Club’s men’s eight Masters E after winning their final. From left to right: Huw Jones, Fred Jefferies, Ian Hyslop, John Ferrario, Hilary Cook, Pete Meaney, Andy Tompkins, Richard Lonergan, Steve Aquilina.